The Vigilante RELOADED
by Nicholas Van Thorne
Summary: (The new and hopefully good incarnation of the disaster that was "The Vigilante". Completely rewritten story, done in a much more professional way I hope) After the fall of Beacon, while team RWBY is scattered and the remains of team JNPR are recovering, a new hero shows up to attempt to right what went wrong. To his dismay, he's more involved in the current events than he imagines
1. The Trail To Vale

Our story begins on the trail to the city of Vale, in an obscure tavern that nobody really memorizes too much, if you don't count the few staff members living there and some drifters who just so happen to end up there while coming back from another amazing "voyage". It was the kind of place where music was minimal, drinks were borderline mundane, chairs were relatively comfortable to sit on and the conversation was what would stand out. Always loud, few clients of the tavern had anything to hide and the slightly drunken voices of its clients' majority would cause just the right amount of noise across the hall of the place itself. That day, however...things were about to change drastically.

Earlier that day it was already noisy. A group of people started banging on the door to the tavern. Once they finally entered, it was clear that they were in terrible shapes. Ragged clothes, dirt, some of them were even slightly injured or already had scars. Some of them were limping so hard they needed support from their less wounded companions. Of course, the staff provided them the help they could offer, even a few clients volunteered. Once the visitors were patched up, given food, water and temporary shelter, they've found the courage to reveal to their waiter that they've escaped the nearby city of Vale due to a Grimm invasion during Vytal Tournament. They sounded really heartbroken as they told the staff what happened to them, as if their whole worlds shattered, not just their city.

That same day, from the opposite direction to where the trail led to Vale, there was a motorcycle speeding across. Not much could be said about it, except that it was a chopper and that it was silent enough to hear heavy music coming from it. The driver was slowing down right by the tavern and was parking the vehicle on the almost empty parking lot. Soon the staff heard as the door slowly opens (as they didn't close it after the refugees from Vale came) and an unknown figure walks inside. Something didn't seem quite right about it...

Because the music was still coming from the chopper parked outside. Worse, it wasn't the heavy stuff everyone heard as the driver was closing in, but practically a mainstream track. The driver was surprised at first but a quick push of a button on the keys did the trick and stopped the music completely. Now everyone could focus their attention on something else while the figure started to walk towards the bar stool. Ultimately it sat next to one of the refugees, an elderly man who was gently sipping a shot of something strong, probably Atlesian vodka. Then the newcomer started to uncover their face.

It was a girl with long, beautifully combed dark brown hair. It really was very long because once she removed her cowboy hat and pulled her dark green bandana off her nose and lips, it was practically reaching halfway through her back. Aside from that she wore aviator sunglasses, leather gloves with a few shiny studs in the knuckles area, a long black trench coat, army pants and bovver boots with shoe buckles instead of shoelaces. She took off her gloves, but didn't even move her hand towards the glasses. The man sitting next to her, however, got slightly confused, because she seemed to be wearing her clothes in masculine sizes. Also, she seemed young. Way too young to be in this kind of place. 'Don't you think you're a little young for a place like this, lady?' the older man asked. But what he heard in response shocked him so greatly he drooled his vodka right back into the shot glass. 'Oh, that's rich. All these clothes obviously no girl would ever wear and I still look like one' responded the...boy. That wasn't a girl that walked into the tavern after parking the chopper, but a guy so androgynous anyone would mistake him for a girl, even if he didn't put effort. He walked in the neutral way in the entrance and his chest was completely flat but his hands seemed way too refined in their movements as well as his...waistline and legs. He was slim, almost skinny, but his hips and thighs still managed to make his rear stand out and catch the eye of all those poor saps in the tavern who didn't know yet that they're whistling at an actual trap with legs that even had feminine calves. This guy could disguise himself as a woman and would probably do it better than some actual female spies. Those were the thoughts going through the first person to learn the "terrible truth". The deceiving guy clearly seemed amused enough to let out a chuckle. At least there wasn't anything feminine about his voice and expressions.

Soon the bartender approached the new guest, but somehow he noticed it was a guy. 'What can I get you, sir?' he asked. The newcomer chuckled again, this time knowing the bartender just overheard his response to the older man. 'A glass of whiskey, please. With two ice cubes.' The stranger ordered, emphasizing about the ice. It didn't take long for the bartender to soon come back with a specific glass of slightly darker, copper liquid. The newcomer took a first sip and started looking around, mostly because the amount of people who seemed freshly wounded seemed a little uncommon to him. He decided to strike up a conversation with the man sitting next to him as he took another sip of whiskey. 'Seems like there's more injured people in here than usual.' He thought out loud. 'And for a reason, partner. These folks lost homes, families, limbs, hell, the whole darn city, to these monsters' the old man responded. 'City? Where you from, old man? Aren't you feeling a little too confident about your village?' the stranger responded and took a sip of his whiskey, making an obnoxious slurp with it just so that the older man doesn't get his eyes off him. And he didn't. He gave him a sharper look with the only eye he had left and clearly seemed offended. 'I'd watch my yapper if I were ya, lady boy. These folks are just seeking shelter because the city of Vale, where they thought huntsmen and huntresses could protect them, was crumbling as hives of living nightmares were ruining their lives. Who are you to judge them?' the old man responded with genuine sorrow in his voice. The "lady boy" felt bad and stopped slurping. Instead, he emptied the glass of whiskey he had and dropped a few dimes required to pay for the drink. 'If what you're saying is true, partner, then you've just convinced me to pay a visit to the beautiful city that's going through a temporary crisis. And it just so happens that I'm, as you said, a huntsman, but not entirely. One thing I do have in common with them is that I love killing me some fucking Grimm stains. That destroyed city isn't just a tragedy, but also an opportunity to show these slimy turds we will not yield so easily. So I'll head there and prove to all y'all that the Grimm are not living nightmares, but spoiled meat you need to toss in the trash. Now, if you would excuse me, I'm about to take my leave.' The guy responded and started putting back on his hat, gloves and the bandanna. Right before he left, the now touched by his speech old man asked him one last thing.

'Who exactly are you, lady boy?'

'I'm the guy that cleans up the mess Gods made a long time ago.'

And after that, he just sat back on his chopper, roared the engine a few times and drove off the parking lot right in the direction of what was once the city of Vale. The old man's remaining eye looked as the chopper was disappearing in the distance. He felt filled with hope, but also with worry...

The man on the chopper soon drove up to the hill, from which he could see the city of Vale in the distance as well as what seemed to be the remains of Beacon Academy looking at the ruins of its protégés from above. Everything was devoid of life from the distance, all that could be heard were occasional gusts of wind and chilling sounds let out by swarms of Grimm roaming around and in the desolated city. The man watched from the hill, feeling a bit uneasy about his crazy plan of driving into the city and killing as many Grimm as he possibly can. But in his mind, he secretly knew why he wanted to dive into these ruins. What he told the old man was only partially true. As he was looking at this horrifying landscape before him, he noticed something on what was left of Beacon Tower. The hill he stood on showed most of what was once the huntsman academy but the tower was, for some reason, blurry. The man only knew there was a black shape in all this blur. That gave him another excuse to go into the ruins...

When suddenly he heard snarling of a Beowolf behind him. He didn't turn back, not wanting the monster to change its tactics, waiting for it to attack him in a "sneaky" way. When the Beowolf finally lunged at the man he swiftly dodged and a sound of a deflected fatal blow could've been heard. When the Grimm realized what's happened, it noticed that the man wasn't standing in front of it anymore, but a little more to the right because of that dodge. The man held a shiny 40 and a half inch sword with a thin and narrow blade and a bizarre handle. That was how the prey of the Beowolf blocked the attack. After that, shockingly, the blade reduced to just its handle and disappeared in the sleeve of the guy's trench coat. He smirked at the Beowolf, slowly taking steps away from it with his hand sticking out towards it as if he wanted to calm the Grimm down. 'I know what you think, cute puppy reject. And I know, I know, I'm in your territory and you have the right to kill me. But you're forgetting that I'm very well aware that I'm in the middle of your kind's country.' And after that some other object appeared in his hand he stuck out. This time it looked like a gold plated handgun. It aimed directly at the forehead of the lurking Beowolf. 'Everybody's got guns where the Grimm are dwelling in these times...and the only reason you eat is because some never pulled a trigger before.' After saying these words the guy squeezed the trigger a couple of times and, just as expected, put a number of holes in the Grimm's head. It yelped and dropped on the ground, slowly dissolving into smoke and the stains of black slime. The guy hid the pistol back in his sleeve, just like he did with the sword, and smirked as he heard muffled Beowolf howling in the distance. 'Too late for that, pieces of filth. Your menace has arrived...and it bears the name of Nicholas Van Thorne.' As he said that to himself he started his chopper again and, this time without hesitation due to the adrenaline building up inside him, the androgynous hater of Grimm drove off the hill and started speeding through the meadow filled with the natural enemy of mankind marching, towards the ruins of Vale, towards what would soon turn out to be a...well, turning point in his life so far. And even though he seemed to go there just to crack some skulls for the sheer idea of murdering monsters, there were other reasons. The Grimm grew more cautious that day, knowing they can no longer feel safe when a chopper's engine and heavy metal music roars in the distance...


	2. The Cliffs Of Beacon

Nick's chopper plowed through the first debris of the city of Vale and was carrying him across the main street he landed on. Of course some Grimm would charge towards him but he had already established a new direction in his mind. He wanted to find his way to the Bullhead landing, find one of those machines working and fly it to the ruins of Beacon. Some would say he's looking for certain doom, but he knew exactly what he wants.

He ran over a few Beowolves trying to cut off his path and when the landing zone finally started to appear on the horizon, an Ursa jumped out of nowhere and tried to block the road as well. Nick knew there was no way in hell he'd run this monster over, thus he needed to use a different approach. He clenched his fist and focused his mind on the amount of Aura he could use to get himself out of this situation. When he got closer to the Ursa he jumped off the vehicle and, as it was sliding on its own under the Grimm's belly, Van Thorne threw something at it. When said object touched the Ursa it started to glow blue and suddenly exploded with a blast of a kinetic shockwave. The Ursa was slightly launched into the air, barely missing Nick with spikes on its back, and after that it hit the concrete with twice the force. It seemed as if the Ursa was knocked out. That was enough for Nick to jump back on his chopper and drive fast to the landing zone. Finally, he reached his destination. He could get off the bike and look for the bullhead. Ironically, one was standing and seemed completely unused. Or so Nick thought...

He only took 5 steps closer towards the flying vehicle when all of a sudden it opened and strange figures jumped out of its back. Unlike the Grimm, these shapes were white and somewhat...shiny. They also seemed more human, but Nick still got anxious by the way they moved. With almost inhuman speed they quickly surrounded him and aimed something at him. It seemed to be rifles. Nick smirked at the new realization he came to. 'Intruder, identify yourself!' one of the figures said with a robotic voice. Nick now had confirmation that those weren't humans either, but some elite models of Atlesian Knights, robotic guards known for their lack of any compassion...just like Atlas itself. Nick was already getting a hold of his sword and was about to start slashing the tin heads but then he suddenly heard steps from afar and soon a voice, which belonged to a human. 'Lay down your weapons!' the voice yelled and the robots obeyed. Nick turned around, not hiding his sword yet.

Two people were approaching him from a short distance, a man and a woman. The man was wearing a white, double-breasted tailcoat with dark blue and black accents, most notable at the cuffs and shoulder pieces, belted at the waist. Underneath it Nick caught a glimpse of a black collared shirt and a red tie. He also had two white gloves on his hands and formal white pants hanging over black boots. He had slightly messy black hair with gray areas, a white complexion and blue eyes. He seemed to carry an extremely large revolver in his hand. That prevented Nick from hiding his sword and gave him an idea that he could be some military figure. However, it was the woman that interested him more...

She was wearing a white long-sleeved, pleated top that had a wide keyhole neckline and gauntlet cuffs that flared in pleats at the wrist. Her lower body was covered by a black high-waisted pencil skirt with bronze buttons and black-brown stockings. She was also wearing black boots with bronze heels, and a cape that was purple inside and black on the outside. The cut of the cape was stylized to end in what appeared to be flames and arrows, with a row of diamond-shaped bronze beads on the back. She had very light-blonde hair tied back in a bun with a curl hanging down the right side of her face, bright green eyes hidden behind a pair of thin ovular glasses, pale white complexion and dangling teal earrings that matched a hanging pendant on her collar. She held in her hand what appeared to be a riding crop. Nick thought it was a weird and seemingly harmless choice for a weapon, but still didn't lay his guard down.

The two people approached Nick a little closer, they seemed very cautious. 'Miss, why are you still roaming around the city? The evac airships left a long time ago' the military guy said with clear irritation in his voice. Nick couldn't help but let out a loud laugh yet again. 'My goodness, isn't that just rich.' He said. The military guy's eyes widened in disbelief as well as the woman's. Nick then decided to finally hide his sword. Once he did so, the man put down his revolver and the woman collapsed her riding crop and attached it to the top of her right boot. 'A very...interesting choice of clothing, young man.' The woman commented. It seemed as if the atmosphere wasn't that tense anymore so Nick took off the glove on his right hand and stretched his hand forward. 'Pleasure to see some normal face around here.' He said as the general shook Van Thorne's hand, rudely not taking off his glove. 'Still, I'm afraid I can't let you roam this area without proper supervision as it's been restricted for as long as the city isn't safe.' The army guy added. Nick nodded in response and smirked sarcastically. 'I do understand, commander, that I may look like a damsel in distress, but I can assure you, no supervision is required. However, I could really one of these bullheads as I really need to pay Beacon a visit.' Nick responded. The military guy seemed to get even more irritated, raised his finger and was about to yell on Van Thorne, but the woman quickly bumped his shoulder. 'Don't be so jumpy, general Ironwood. Even if he might give out the impression of being an enemy, we still have enough resources to dispose of him if he's causing trouble. After all, we're still huntsmen, aren't we?' She sounded very stern, but quite sassy as well. Nick was surprised with what he just heard. 'Wow lady, you're rather apathetic about visions of death and dismemberment.' He said. The woman just gave him a cold look and shook her arms. 'What can I say, young man...it runs in the family.' She responded and walked away towards the bullhead. The military guy who got called Ironwood followed her and Nick went in as the last one, putting his chopper away in the cargo dock with the turned off Atlesian Knights.

Nick took a seat and took off his hat. He sat there, relaxed. The sofa in the bullhead was much more comfortable than the bar stool in the tavern and definitely better than his chopper's seat. Near him, on the same sofa, sat the woman with the riding crop, tapping something on her scroll. But at some point he heard her closing it and turning her sights at him. 'Young man, I must tell you that your behavior so far has been indignant at best.' She said out of the blue. Nick turned to face her as well. 'Ma'am, I don't mean to be rude now, but you were the ones who greeted a potential survivor of your city with a bunch of military machines ready to pop a gloryhole in my forehead.' He responded with a chuckle. The woman's expression turned into complete disgust. 'I beg you pardon?! What kind of language even is that? You should receive a slap on the wrist for such...toilet language!' She clearly seemed offended, but Nick knew just the right counter. 'Slap away, lady, but tell me first...how do you know the meaning of this toilet language you speak of?' He was really satisfied about that one. The woman wanted to raise her voice, but ultimately kept her cool and just responded with a sassy chuckle. 'Child, I'm an academy professor. I've studied the language of your age gap long enough to know some of your slangs.' She said with obvious pride. Nick raised his eyebrow in curiosity. 'Somehow I've never heard of a teacher such as you.' He said and chuckled again. The woman was really entertaining to talk to. 'Well, you don't seem like an academy student, so I won't slap you for that, I'll give you the courtesy. My name is Glynda Goodwitch. Would you care to share your name now?' She said, clearly calming down and stopping to be so stern. Nick was about to tell her his name...but then he remembered something very important upon hearing the woman's name and his voice got stuck in his throat. He didn't manage to give her his name because then Ironwood came in and interrupted them both with a half-assed 'We've landed'.

This time, Nick got off the first, leaving his chopper near the landing zone. He has arrived at Beacon and was greeted with a landscape even more horrible than in the city of Vale. The academy seemed in even worse condition, but despite that there were white and blue Atlesian tents standing around and, along with them, tons of Atlesian Knights as well as regular human soldiers. It was also at that moment that Nick noticed the giant black shape he could see on the Beacon Tower from the distance. His face brightened up and yet he felt...overwhelmed.

The shape that could've been seen clinging onto the top of the Beacon Tower was nothing more than an enormous winged Grimm, with large red bat-like wings with a translucent membrane, a pair of legs and a tail. It had rough black skin with white bone-like spines along the body, including an external skull, rib cage and rows of dorsal spikes. It also had three bony spikes on its tail and large claws on its hind legs. Its skull had a pair of large prominent horns and six yellow-red eyes. Its jaw had teeth extending down along the neck, beyond its skull. For Nick the sight was both menacing and breathtaking.

'Enjoying the latest addition to the architecture, lady boy?' Ironwood appeared next to Van Thorne. Nick was still amazed by the sight, but he wasn't speechless. 'How did this beast end up here? And why is it not moving?' Nick said. Ironwood started tapping something on his scroll. 'Erupted from Mountain Glenn on the night Beacon fell. It was for some reason focusing on this tower in particular. Then, at some point, some bright light went through the whole academy and poof, the thing is frozen. But don't be fooled, it's still alive, we checked.' Ironwood explained, while Nick was still staring. 'That thing you're talking about, general, is a Wyvernicus Sanguinus, one of the rarest and most mysterious Grimm to ever walk the face of Remnant.' Nick responded and pointed at the monster. Ironwood ignored him and still kept typing something on his scroll, so Nick now just admired the monster on his own. At some point his eyes drifted off and focused on the beast's eyes...

'Hexman...'

Suddenly a ghastly whisper went through Nick's head. He felt disoriented without any idea as to where it came from. He looked around until he heard it again:

'Traitor...Murderer...Cannibal...'

The whisper went through his head again. He panicked more and looked around chaotically until he focused his sight on the frozen monster. He took a better look at its face...

'You must pay for your crimes...'

The same voice said and the eye of the dragon moved, now looking directly at Nick. He froze in the ground and tripped a little. He didn't fall on the ground, but he still alerted Ironwood.

'You okay there?' He said and walked up closer to Nick, who went pale from having the giant Grimm look at him. 'Tell me you heard this as well...' Van Thorne responded and looked at Ironwood with hope. But the military figure just raised his eyebrow in confusion. 'Well anyway, stranger, I'm afraid I won't be sticking around. There's a matter I must attend to in Atlas. But don't think you're off the hook just because of that. Glynda will take responsibility for you for the time being and I do hope you'll consider evacuating from this place. Things that happened here...you don't want to see that.' He said and walked away. Van Thorne stood there for a second and then noticed professor Goodwitch leaving one of the tents. He walked up to her, still a little anxious after his realization on the bullhead. 'Ah, lady boy. You must've gotten the message from general. Come in.' She said upon seeing Nick and walked back into the tent, Nick followed her. Inside there seemed to only be enough space for the two of them to sit by the desk, which was taking up 75% of the tent. Nick looked at what was on the desk. There was a pile of files and he only managed to read one, that said "Team JNPR" before all of it suddenly went into the air. Glynda sat by her side of the desk while keeping her eyes on the floating object and, completely unfazed, followed it with her sight until it landed in what seemed to be a suitcase standing in the corner. After that the said container closed itself on its own. Nick figured it could've been Glynda's semblance...which would make perfect sense to him.

'Professor Goodwitch, there's a few things I must ask you about.' Van Thorne said as he sat by his side of the desk.

'If this is about permanently staying here or about what happened then you can't expect an answer from me on that. Atlesian protocols forbid me from giving away any information to the so-called bystanders about the current state of Vale and Beacon.' Glynda responded as her semblance was pouring water from a bottle in the desk into two small glasses that followed. 'No, it's not that,' Nick responded. 'It's actually about you.'

'Oh so now you remember, who I am, lady boy?' She responded, chuckled and took a sip of her water. Nick's hand shook a little before he managed to take a sip of his water as well...and then he began the tough talk.

'You really are THE Glynda Goodwitch?' Nick asked.

'Quite perceptive of you.' She responded and gave a sarcastic smile.

'I know this might sound strange but...were you an only child in your family?'

The professor's eyes looked at Nick with confusion. Then she sighed and corrected her glasses.

'No, I had a sister once.' She said in a slightly sad way.

'Were you completely different as kids?'

'We were actually quite close as siblings, but she could never grow up the way our parents wanted her to. Instead of sitting in school, she wanted to go out, explore, travel Remnant and document everything she finds, look for truth from legends...she was not thinking about settling down. When she turned 21, she moved out of our family's house and went on a journey to the unknown. It was shortly after our parents passed away. I went to work in Beacon and, after a long time, I got a letter from her. She said she settled down in a village called Gwynbleidd and married someone...'

'Sihill Vel Gwyhyr.' Nick interrupted Goodwitch and smiled.

'I was about to say that. Anyway, I've only met her husband once. It was a quite interesting gentleman, very well-spoken and educated, but didn't seem to put any effort in his appearance. Definitely one of the most interesting things about him was the fact that he was a Hexman. You know, one of these warriors who go way too far to have an advantage against the Grimm? The ones with narrow pupils in their eyes and silver lockets around their necks? From what he told me, in their community it's possible to keep your family name but you can give yourself a nickname as well to either first name or last name.'

'Didn't expect such a lecture from you, professor.'

'I just...didn't have the opportunity to tell anyone about this before. You're the first one to ask.'

'I see,' Nick nodded and smiled wider. 'Well, I can definitely confirm what you said about Hexmen, but the lockets are worn as memorials of non-Hexmen they miss the most. And Vel Gwyhyr was just Sihill's nickname, his name was actually Sihill Van Thorne.'

'How do you know such things?' Glynda grew suspicious and started to subtly reach for her riding crop.

'Did you know that your sister was pregnant when you met her husband?' Nick was starting to sound sinister.

'I only found it out the day she was giving birth when I came to visit her in Gwynbleidd. I saw the baby for only a few minutes before she passed out and Sihill told me to leave!' Glynda now sounded like she was desperately looking for an excuse.

At that moment Nick took something out of a pocket in his coat and put it on the desk. Glynda took it in her hands. It seemed to be a silver locket. When she opened it, she was presented with a small black and white photo of a brunette woman giving her a warm smile. Her hair was tied in a very similar way as the professor's. Glynda recognized the person in the photo and shed a tear.

'Yennefer...' She just quietly said, seeing her sister's face after so long.

In the meantime, Nick took off his glasses. His eyes were pale green with narrow pupils. When Glynda looked up and saw that her guest is a Hexman, she seemed both confused and happy.

'Who...are you?'

'I think it's about time for me to introduce myself, ma'am. My name is Nicholas Van Thorne. Yennefer Goodwitch-Vel Gwyhyr is my mother.'

'Then that means...'

'It's good to finally meet you in person...auntie.'


	3. The Road To Patch Island

Glynda's jaw dropped as well as the locket she had in her hand. Nick was sitting and playing with the cup of water he had in his hand, awaiting her response. She seemed like she was gathering thoughts very heavily. 'After so many years...' She said, shocked, and got up from her seat. Nick soon did the same and walked up to the professor. 'I've been looking for you for the past three years.' The Hexman said and took off his hat. He seemed upset about something. Glynda wasn't too happy either, as the silver locket meant her sister passed away. She shed a tear again and after that turned around to face Nick. She looked him deep in the eyes and it made her believe, that this boy was her nephew. More tears went down her cheeks, but despite that she forced herself to smile. 'You've been just a newborn when I last saw you.' She said and put her hands on Van Thorne's cheeks. The Hexman was shocked as he hasn't experienced a warm touch from another person in a long time. Glynda was checking every single detail of his face with care. She noticed a few barely visible scars on his neck. After that she let go of him. 'I never got the chance to tell her how sorry I am for all these years apart. She needed me, but I cared more about strangers than my own kin.' She said in a regretful way. Now it was Nick's turn to grab Glynda's hands. 'Auntie, don't blame that. Mum never held a grudge against you, never let dad say a bad word about you,' He said and looked his aunt deep in the eyes. 'Before she died, she told me I must find you. It took me three years to get that done, but...I'm here now.'

Glynda released her hands from Nick's grip and took a deep breath. He then proceeded to tap something on his scroll and after a few taps he showed Glynda an internet article by VNN.

'My parents' deaths weren't accidents. They were murdered, and I need your help if I'm going to have any hope of avenging them, because you're the last person on this God forsaken planet I can trust.'

Glynda looked at the article on Nick's scroll. It was about a raid that destroyed the village, where Hexmen had their main fortress, Gwynbleidd. Few people survived it and ran off to nearby settlements and the city of Vale, but Hexmen were either found dead or missing. Among the ones, that were found dead, was the last Grandmaster, Sihill Vel Gwyhyr, and his wife, Yennefer. Glynda shivered, but gave Nick back his scroll. She now had the whole picture. Her nephew is one of the missing Hexmen and survivors of the raid.

'Well...do you have any suspicion as to who was responsible for the raid?' Goodwitch asked.

'Only one, but I doubt you'd believe me,' Nick responded. 'I think it was...'

Suddenly Glynda's scroll went off. Nick's heart jumped in his chest and so did the professor's. She made an angry face and took the device out of her pocket. 'Ugh, I swear, this guy just keeps giving me reasons to mop the floor with him...' She said through her teeth and picked up the scroll. She then made a very fake smile on her face. 'Hello?' She said in an obviously fake cheery tone, but immediately after that went to being irritated. 'We've talked about this already. You cannot request to use Vale's CCT Network in Signal, because it's been in lockdown for months, it won't work. Yeah, sure, go to Atlas and ask them, you're so delusional if you think a country that has just issued martial law will let a foreigner use their main communication source with the world to look for a runaway child. Look, can't you just remain vigilant while she's gone? Well, why don't you go after her then. She's big enough to take care of the house on her own. Yes, I know you're a teacher as well. Yeah, well you know what? Fu-.' Glynda suddenly stopped and put her scroll away from her ear. The caller hung up. 'Who was that?' Nick was genuinely worried. 'A certain individual, who makes me ashamed of being a blonde.' Goodwitch responded and gave Nick an irritated smile. Van Thorne shrugged and his aunt walked up closer to him. 'Why don't we go for a walk, nephew?' She asked.

Nick and his aunt were walking around the courtyard of the destroyed Beacon Academy. The shadow of Wyvernicus Sanguinus was above them, but Nick didn't even attempt to turn his sights at it. Glynda soon led him to a cliff, from which all they could see was a massive forest. On the ground Nick could see big black tiles with the crest of Vale on them. Glynda just sat on the grass and looked at the landscape before her. Nick soon sat next to her. 'We've held our last initiation here,' She said. 'We've created three teams out of this suicide mission. Ozpin put them on the launching pads you see there and shot them right into the middle of this Grimm-infested forest. And you know what their rewards were, besides creating teams more unbalanced than Ironwood's ego? Chess pieces. What a farce, all this.'

Nick looked at the landscape with his aunt, a little shocked about what she just said. After all, she still was a professor. Someone of her status would, in Nick's mind, still be entitled to their beliefs. But Goodwitch instead seemed like she was going through an outlook crisis. It was shocking and quite upsetting, so Nick tried to change it into nostalgia.

'Well, do you remember, who these students were? As, you know, people?' He asked.

'Oh, Nicky, it was not possible to not remember them. First, it was team CRDL, four students who loved ruining the day for others. Their leader, Cardin Winchester, was decent at combat but could never go on a relatively good level. Mainly because he was only tough if he faced students worse than him...'

'There were students like that?'

'Yes, one in particular. He was the leader of another team, JNPR, to be exact. It was an interesting case because, while the rest of their team were actually skilled students, their leader was...okay I can't find an euphemism, he was pathetic. Don't think it's something personal on my part, I later found his application papers. Obvious counterfeits, possibly from the forgers guild in Mistral. But Ozpin didn't let me expel the kid...so, now we can both see where that got him.'

Nick and Glynda let out a chuckle. The Hexman knew, whom his aunt was talking about, as his dad was frequently corresponding with said person. Now it seemed like he was a headmaster at Beacon, someone surely important.

'Well, what about the third team? Were they any good?' Nick asked, wanting to get Glynda's mind off that Ozpin fellow.

'Ah yes, team RWBY. The only team from the last initiation, whose members I remember clearly. I should first start off by saying they were all girls, all unique in some way. Take Yang for example, the "Y" of this team. She was an unique kind of a combination of feminine beauty and masculine mind.'

'You mean she was a tomboy?'

'Well, yes, but not appearance-wise. Your average tomboy would have short hair, but not her. Imagine your hair in the most golden shade you can think of and then shake it up so that it looks like literal chaos. That's Yang for you. She may have been a messy tomboy, but no matter what, she was always such a beauty...I actually was jealous of her. For a short time.'

'Where is she now?'

'Oh, she met a tragic fate, Nicholas. When Beacon was falling she got caught up in some nasty battle on the campus and ended up without an arm. That person I was yelling at earlier through my scroll? That was her dad. He doesn't seem to be coping well either. One of his daughters loses her arm, the other runs away from home, and the guy just kind of loses it as a single parent.'

'Did you know his other daughter?'

'Oh, but of course. She was the leader, her name was Ruby. It's funny that you ask, I actually met her by accident. Imagine this, a 15 year old girl with a weapon twice as big as her body takes on a group of vicious criminals led by a criminal mastermind. I tried to send her home, but Ozpin abused his power in that case as well and poof, we ended up with an actual child in our ranks. Nevertheless, she was quite impressive, I could see she was brought up by Huntsmen, just like her sister. But...there's still one thing that bothers me about her to this day.'

'What is it?'

'Why did Ozpin decide that her eye color qualified her as a Beacon student?'

'I think your boss here may have had a "preference", so to speak. At the end of the day, we all have some sort of bias and Ozpin doesn't seem to be an exception from that rule. And speaking of which, his preference was what?'

'Silver eyes.' Glynda just quickly responded...and that made Nick jump back on his feet. He now looked at his aunt from above, his eyes went wider than ever. Goodwitch, startled, also stood up from the ground and looked at Nick surprised.

'I'm sorry, let me just make sure I heard you correctly. You've had a student, here at Beacon, with silver freaking eyes?' He asked, an excited grin forming on his face.

Glynda just nodded in response.

'Then there you have it. Your solution to the problems of Beacon!' Nick yelled, grabbed his aunt's hand and ran with her back to the main Beacon courtyard. When they both reached it, he pointed his finger at the Beacon Tower, without looking at it.

'That giant Grimm, that's frozen up there. It's silver eyes that did that, I'm sure of it. And I can see your problem now. This thing is imprisoned, but not dead. So it attracts the Grimm here and that's why you have so many of them.'

'I don't think I follow what you're saying.'

'Listen, auntie, I'll make you a deal. I will bring the silver-eyed student of yours back here, we'll deal with the monster then and Beacon will rise again. In exchange, I'd like you to help me track down those, who destroyed my village and killed my parents.'

Nick was in a euphoric state after finding out more about the situation of Beacon. He was also excited as this was opening up a new opportunity for him, to kill one of the rarest Grimm in existence. Unfortunately, Glynda brought him back from that euphoria in the harshest way possible...by raising her hand and smacking him across the face. Nick went completely silent at that moment, feeling the sound of that slap.

'I just heard, that my sister has been murdered, and that my only family member left was looking for me for three years. And now that same family member wants to run off again, possibly to never return and share my sister's fate? You're a foolish young man, Nicholas Van Thorne, if you think I'll take that risk...' She said with a shaky voice, ready to burst into tears.

Nick stopped feeling the burn from the slap he received from Glynda. He was now looking at her, as she was slowly starting to sob. He got closer to his aunt and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a warm hug. She hugged her nephew back, sobbing quietly into his chest. Nick then felt bad for his behavior earlier. He realized at that moment that his aunt is in mourning and that right now she needs someone to just be there, not a cold Grimm killer, eager to do something for someone like a mercenary job. She needed a family member. She needed her nephew.

Glynda and Nick were standing like that in a hug for about 10 minutes in the middle of the Beacon courtyard. When the professor's tears stopped flowing and she let go of Van Thorne, the Hexman took out the silver locket with the picture of his mother and gave it to his aunt. After that he gave her a pat on the shoulder. 'Feeling better?' He asked. Goodwitch just nodded and started to walk towards her tent. Nick followed her, but when she got inside the tent, she started to sway on her feet. Nick caught her and called a nearby guard. He ordered him to put the professor into bed. But before he let the guard walk away, he took Glynda's scroll and saved its number in his scroll's contacts. After that he put her scroll back in her pocket and the guard took her away. "I can't just stand around and do nothing. She won't be able to keep up here in Beacon anymore if something isn't done about that giant Grimm. I have to find the silver-eyed student of Beacon, but how? She ran away from home. Wait, her dad was the guy auntie talked to over the scroll. And she mentioned Signal Academy...that's Patch Island then! Yeah, that's where I should start!" He thought and ran to the bullhead landing. He quickly got on, put his motorcycle in the cargo and took a seat. The machine started and soon Nick was in air. He now had a new purpose in life and that was helping out the only family he had left. He walked up to one of the pilots, sitting by the ship's controls. According to what was on it, the autopilot was in effect, so Nick bumped the pilot in the shoulder. He stood up and turned his sight to Van Thorne. 'Yes?' He asked. 'What would be the fastest way to get to Patch Island?' The Hexman asked. The pilot shrugged in response, but the look in his eyes made Nick take the hint. He dug into the pockets of his coat and managed to get his wallet out. He took out a 10 Lien bill and handed it over to the pilot. He smirked. 'Drive to the Vale harbor at the western end of Residential District, there should be a cargo ship leaving for Patch there, run entirely by Knights, so if you give them an identification code, they'll let you in.' He said. 'What's the code?' Nick asked. 'Well, I can't quite remember...' The pilot responded with a slight hint in his voice. Nick took out another 10 Lien bill and handed it to the pilot. He smirked again and put both the bills in his pants pocket. 'It should be 1, 9, 6, 2. Overheard it from my supervisor and he's not very smart so it won't be changed.' He said. Nick nodded and walked away towards the cargo bay of the bullhead to ready his chopper. When the bullhead landed, Nick started the engine and drove off the machine straight west, towards the Vale harbor. He reached it after a few minutes and could see the ferry in the distance. A few people were hopping on it already and Nick wanted to follow them with his chopper, but then he was stopped by a group of Atlesian Knights. They quickly surrounded him and pointed their guns at him again. 'Facial recognition failed. Unidentified lifeform approaching.' They said with their robotic voices. 'Lifeform, that's a new way of not assuming a gender. Code 1, 9, 6, 2.' Nick nonchalantly responded. The Knights put down their weapons and saluted. 'Authorization verified. Welcome, commander.' Their robotic voices said as Nick was dragging his chopper onto the ferry. 'Commander...heh, I need to buy a uniform.' He said as he was completely leaving the robots behind.

Nick left the chopper leaning against the steering cabin which was on the top deck he hopped on. Soon the ferry let out a loud noise, indicating it's about to leave. Nick walked up to the ferry's barrier and leaned against it, facing forward towards where the ship was heading, the strait right between the river of Vale and the open sea, that would lead him to Patch island. He was glad to be on this ship with people instead of driving through empty districts of Vale filled with Grimm. 'Another lone wanderer, eh?' He suddenly heard a voice behind him. He turned around and noticed an older man close to another spot on the barrier. He had a long, white beard, short hair in a matching color and wore a navy uniform, complete with a hat with an anchor emblem on it. Nick immediately assumed he's the captain of the ship, so he nonchalantly saluted him. The man just smiled back at the salute. There was something oddly sympathetic about him. 'There's no need to be so formal, young lad. Not when we're in the area of no formalities at all.' He added and chuckled. He then took off his hat and so did Nick. The captain leaned against the barrier closer to Nick. 'Not many people travel boats alone, you know.' He said after exchanging a few gazes with Van Thorne. 'Not many people start a random chat with those that are alone.' Nick responded with a slight hint of irony. The captain let out a short laugh and nodded. 'Indeed, that's not something that happens very often. Where are you heading? By the motorcycle standing over there, I'm assuming you're no Vale refugee.' The captain made a good point. Nick got slightly cautious with his words at that moment. He decided to be honest to a degree with the captain. 'I urgently need to get to Patch island. I have...relatives there.' He said, feeling a little worried that he might get kicked off the ferry. But the captain didn't push further and his gaze softened. 'Hey, this vessel is for all who want to get out of here, not just those affected by the last Vytal.' The captain said. Nick gave him a smile and looked forward from where he was standing. The ferry was crossing a river between two different shores of Vale's industrial district, that were completely torn apart by the constant Grimm attacks. The captain was cautiously looking around and Nick was closely listening to the gusts of wind hitting both the front and the back of the boat. He wanted to see if his incident with the Grimm Wyvern would happen again. But there was just silence. After a few minutes Nick and the captain could see a completely ruined bridge on the Vale strait. It was very close to the coastal area from which the open sea would lead Nick straight to Patch.

'Well...looks like we're getting closer to the industrial port of Vale. You might want to cover your nose, the stench of fish from there is strong even today.'

Nick looked at captain with disbelief and didn't do as he said. Instead he took a loud sniff and noticed a slight stench of what seemed to be slightly rotten fish mixed with the smell of seawater.

'Well, I'll be damned. I only knew one person who'd do what you just did at that kind of smell...'

'Fellow sailor, I presume?'

'Actually, a different passenger, from my course to Menagerie about two days ago. But she was a lot less talkative than you...'

Nick only nodded in response and was continuously amazing everyone on the ship as they were cringing in discomfort because of the stench coming from the industrial port. Thankfully, it was a rather short wave. After passing the industrial port Nick could now see the coast (or rather small spots of muddy sand where you're more likely to see the end of a sewage pipe) and the open sea. The ship was staying its course very well and it looked like it'll take a while until Nick can take a ride to Signal Academy. So, he decided to strike up a conversation with the captain yet again, seeing as he seemed to be the only one with enough social skills on this vessel.

'You were kinda right, this smell isn't for everyone. Who was the brave lady that dared to inhale that pestilence?'

'A faunus. And a very snarky one at that. The kind that would rather be left alone. Was a little upset at first but thanks to her and another faunus I'm actually still alive.'

'Oh really?'

'We got attacked by this one Grimm, very similar to the one clinging onto Beacon tower. Sonuvabitch was trying to sink us a couple kilometers away from the safe coast of Menagerie...'

'Now I can safely say you're a true sailor, captain. Stories of ridiculous sea monsters and faunus actually trying to protect mankind is something you can use once you're a pirate to tell your first mates!'

'But that monster was real! It was spitting lightning in our faces and could fly as well as swim. If the faunus lady didn't cut its wings we would've been done for.'

'Wait a second. You said it was a Grimm similar to Wyvernicus Sanguinus, spitting lightning, aquatic and flying, and it attacked you near the coast of Menagerie...'

'Precisely!'

'There's only one Grimm that can do that, Sea Feilong. You've had a ton of luck to survive an encounter with it. It's the second most dangerous aquatic Grimm according to the Grimmicon'

'What's the first one?'

Nick was surprised and a little irritated at the captain's curiosity. He felt lucky that the captain didn't ask what Grimmicon is...

'You don't want to know, captain...'

After that both Nick and the sailor went silent and instead looked forward to Patch Island, slowly coming out of the fog. The ship was now on full power, slowly approaching its sandy destination. Nick got closer to his chopper and was now checking with care if everything was alright with it. He noticed that a couple of kids were staring at him and his ride.

'You don't have to worry, there's not a single scratch on it.'

After these words from Nick the kids quickly looked away, simply because their parents must've taught them not to talk to strangers. As the ship vibrated while stopping in the very small Patch harbor, Nick was already trying to start up the engine. The captain approached him one last time.

'Hey kid, once you're done visiting your Patch relatives, get back to this harbor and catch the next ship to anywhere but Vale. If that ship's captain causes problems for you, give them this.'

The captain passed Nick a brooch with an anchor on it. Nick gently took it from him and hid in one of his coat's pockets. After that he thanked the sailor, nodded to the rest of the passengers that weren't going off in Patch, got on his chopper and drove off the ship with a roar of his engine. After drifitng a little bit on the coast, Nick found a passage up the cliff overlooking the beach he got off on. On the top of the cliff he could see a forest that led further into the island. Could there be a place for the silver-eyed warrior to live? Patch is certainly not a big island, so he might as well spend just a few hours on full speed driving around it. If he doesn't find a house with said warrior in it, he'd just go to Signal and ask there...as nice as he can.

Nick reached the top of the cliff and was now riding across a plain road in the middle of a forest. He was surrounded by a rustle of the leaves and a slight lack of light. His journey seemed like it's in its easy phase and Nick wasn't very stressed out on his bike...

Until all of a sudden he heard snarling coming from very close to his right...and then a howl...

Nick's shock was immense when all of a sudden 5 Beowolves jumped right in front of him. He was closing in on them worryingly fast and couldn't slow down, because he could hear something running from behind as well, not a Beowolf, but Nick didn't even dare look back to see what it was. So instead, he did the only thing that came to his mind...

He sped up, his foot mercilessly choking the gas pedal to give him its best. In the middle of the Grimm that were standing in his way was an Alpha Beowolf. Nick didn't have much space to maneuver so he was driving right at it. But at the right moment Van Thorne lifted his chopper off the ground and jumped off its seat as it was barely scraping the monster's head with its back wheel. When the chopper hit the ground, Nick followed shortly after. His return to the bike's saddle turned out to be not so perfect. He never made a jump this big and this crazy on his vehicle and the impact of landing back on it caused his body to hit the steering wheel a little hard. He could now feel a really annoying pain in his chest but couldn't afford to let it go away in peace, not when the Beowolves and that other species was on his tail.

But fortunately for him after a few seconds he heard the Beowolves yelping and a dull sound of smashing onto the ground. The Grimm that was behind him must've crashed into the Beowolves in his way. Nick smirked despite his chest pain. He looked into one of the mirrors on the chopper. The shapes of the Grimm seemed to be disappearing in the distance. Nick lost them. He was so happy about it...he didn't notice a thick root of a tree slightly growing out of the ground. When his chopper bumped at it, Nick was so surprised he lost control over his steering wheel and the vehicle started violently swaying from left to right until at some point it completely fell on its side and pulled Nick with it. One of the mirrors and the frontal lights broke, the paintjob got damaged and the left part of the steering wheel bent in an unfortunate way, giving Nick a few more whacks in the chest and head. Along with that one of his legs got stuck underneath the vehicle and he couldn't pull it out for a while. Once he finally did, it turned out his ankle was twisted. Nick was in a lot of pain and was unable to stand up. Bruises on his chest and face, grazes on hands and that ankle were almost making him want to scream. But he had enough strength to look around.

He was out of the forest when the motorcycle finally stopped and twisted his ankle. He was now on some strange meadow. Close to it, to his right, he could see the end of the cliff and something that seemed like a misplaced rock sticking out of the ground right by the edge. Almost every other direction was the meadow and the edge of the forest, that seemed to extend itself further on Nick's left, leaving the meadow completely without trees. But right in front of where Nick was lying, in a short distance, stood a two story wooden house. It had a chimney from which smoke was coming, so Nick immediately assumed someone must be home. At first he wanted to scream, but the Grimm could've still been close, so instead of calling someone for help, he started crawling. With pain in his hands from the grazes it was quite hard to find the strength...

But it turned out that someone heard Nick's accident. And, happily enough, it wasn't the Grimm.

Nick was approached by someone, whose face he couldn't see clearly because of dirt on his glasses. He took them off slowly but the sunlight was still making the figure not visible enough for Van Thorne. All he could see were the colors of that person's clothing, from the bottom to the top. White, gray-brown, orange and gray. The only other detail he remembered was the fact that the person was definitely blonde. The colors soon started getting more and more blurry, Nick felt like passing out from the pain in his ankle and chest. He barely felt as the person lifts him up. They were doing it, for some reason, with just one hand, as Nick could still tell. And because he was lightweight, he soon also felt like his head is dangling and his hat is removed beforehand. The person was carrying him on their shoulder. The last thing he remembered before passing out was one muffled word the person seemed to have said very loudly, as if they called someone from the distance. His consciousness slipping away, he couldn't determine the gender of his carrier, but the said word...was "dad".


	4. The Warmth Of Redemption

'Oh shit, my head..'

That was Nick's first thought after regaining any sort of consciousness. His head felt like after a full day of driving the craziest ride of an amusement park. He wanted to throw up, but his body refused to make him gag. Instead, it started to gently bring him back to his senses…

Once he was alive enough for his eyes to work well, he looked around with confusion. He definitely was in some sort of room, in a surprisingly comfortable bed, but it was dark everywhere else in there. Once his eye located a window to his left, it seemed like it was quite dark outside as well, as if it was a very late evening. Then a pulse of pain went through his chest. Nick hissed from pain and looked down. He wasn't wearing his coat or the red t-shirt anymore but a quite big roll of bandages, covering him from his stomach to his shoulders. It felt a little tight, but it sure was better than the chest pains earlier.

Suddenly, Nick heard steps. He chaotically looked around until his eye focused on the very object right in front of him, the door. From below it he could see that there is light beyond the room he was in, so it was someone's house. Despite everything, Nick slammed his head onto the pillow and closed his eyes to pretend he's still knocked out.

He was correct because right at that moment someone opened the door and entered the room he woke up in. Immediately after that he heard a click and noticed that, despite his eyes being closed, the darkness in front of him slightly brightened up, meaning that the click was a light switch.

The person's steps were slow, but the wooden floor they walked on was creaking nevertheless. He suddenly smelled an odd scent, like a facial cream mixed with hair conditioner. The person that walked in must have been washing up not too long ago. He heard a few more steps from them and then it stopped. But, expectedly, it didn't take long and after a few short breaths Nick felt something…different. It was like a tingle and it was right on the very sheet he was lying under. That person had their hand closer to him than he would expect. After some time, the stranger's hand was gently pushing his arm. It wouldn't be anything special if all of a sudden the person's cold fingers didn't touch Nick's bare neck, which caused him to squirm a little. That's when he opened his eyes and saw the person that snuck up on him.

The first thing he noticed, besides the fact that it was a girl, was bright, golden hair tied into a messy ponytail. That brightness was almost reflecting on his eyes as hard as the very light that was now in the room. His shock was slightly reduced due to him waking up earlier, but he still could catch himself on heavy breathing. After his eyes got used to the light, he started noticing other things about the girl in front of him, like her fair skin and the thing that drew his attention the most, her gorgeous lilac eyes. She seemed slightly surprised at the sight of him being awake. She was wearing a gray jacket over what seemed to be an orange tank top. One of the jacket's sleeves was tied. Apart from that she was wearing gray-brown cargo pants and white sneakers with blue laces.

She slowly leaned in on Nick from where she was standing and, after looking cold for a short time, a warm smile formed on her face.

'Welcome back to the land of the living, stunt boy.'

Nick couldn't help but just stare into the girl's eyes, trying to process what she just said to him. She must have noticed because she let out a chuckle and sat on a chair that Van Thorne didn't notice in the dark at first. She then proceeded to reach out for his bandages yet again…surprisingly, with just one hand…

'Where…'

'Okay, that's a good start. You've had an accident near my very doorstep, remember?' The girl said, focused on gently rolling the bandages off Nick's body.

'I hit my head that hard?'

'Not the head, but these abs here were quite hurt. Oh, and we had to cut off your foot…'

'WHAT?!'

Nick's shriek made him instinctively look under the sheet…only to see that his once twisted ankle is still there and his foot is fine…

'Ahahahahah…I'm so sorry, I had to.' The girl said and was now giggling. It wasn't the best start of a new acquaintance for Nick…

He didn't utter another word to the girl until she stopped taking off his bandage with just that one hand. Despite her bad joke earlier, Nick took a better look at her and felt better now, knowing that it was her and not the Grimm that found him. There was joy radiating from her. However, in her eyes, something seemed a little off. It was getting Nick quite worried as he thought whatever was under her jacket's tied sleeve was the source of that.

'Well, that would be it. You shouldn't have a limp, aura worked wonders on that. But, just in case, avoid kicking anything for like, 2 to 3 days. Can you stand?'

Nick nodded and slowly stood up from the bed. Even though his bare chest was now visible, he still was in his pants, just without his boots. Underneath them he usually wore plain black socks, but now his feet were bare. He took a few steps. Despite his previous injury making his foot a little heavy, he could freely move it.

'Thank you, ummmm…'

'It's Yang…my name.' The girl looked away from him and smiled again. Nick could now relax. After a brief moment of silence, the blonde girl threw something at Van Thorne. From what he could recall, it was his t-shirt, so he quickly put it on and only after that Yang turned her sights back to him.

'Thank you, Yang. I'm Nicholas, but please, call me Nick.'

'Well then, stunt boy Nick, come with me for a second…'

After these words Yang got closer to the door and opened it. Nick followed her through it. They were now both very close to a wooden staircase leading down, implying that Nick was dragged upstairs. He thought to himself that there had to be more than one person in the house. And as he followed Yang, about halfway through, he could hear 3 voices coming from a quite close distance, two of which were loud and quite obnoxious laughters. With hesitation, Nick still walked right behind Yang, who was clearly in need of the arm support to her right. When they both got off the stairs, the voices could have been determined to be three men. The two were in a dark what seemed like a living room, and the three people were in what seemed to be the kitchen, judging from a big table Nick could see, casting its shadow on the light stretching beyond it.

'…and THEN, in comes Qrow, wearing a SKIRT! I was just a T.A. I…I didn't know what to do, so I just left the room to laugh!'

One of the voices, barely possible to make out anything of, reached Nick's ear. He wasn't really sure if he wants to reveal himself to the people Yang was leading him to. They seemed drunk…and one thing that the unknown man said and Nick heard out of context got stuck in his head…

'Yeah, we told him it was a kilt, he'd never worn a uniform before so he didn't know!'

Another, this time different voice, said. Unlike the other one, it didn't seem drunk to Nick and its owner could get him to make out more from what he was saying.

Yang raised her finger, giving Nick a sign to wait a second, hearing more laughters and voices coming from the kitchen. After a few moments, Yang peeked from behind the doorframe. Nick didn't follow, but suddenly he heard a dull slam onto the ground. He jumped in place a little, while the blonde let out a cute giggle…again.

Two out of three voices started to mumble something as Nick only heard a sound, as if someone was trying to get up after falling. Yang then gave him a sign to follow her and when they both entered the kitchen, Nick could finally see the laughing people with his own eyes.

First, he saw a man to his left, picking up a chair from the ground. He appeared to be a slightly overweight man in early old age with gray hair and a matching moustache, wearing a double-breasted burgundy suit with gold piping and buttons. His pants were tucked into olive boots.

The man to Nick's right was completely different. He was skinny, with messy green hair and brown eyes, wearing a disheveled white shirt partially tucked into his dark-green pants and its collar raised, showing a slack yellow tie, along with mismatched brown and black shoes. He was also wearing round opaque glasses and was holding a mug in his hand. Upon seeing him, Nick felt the inner need for coffee…

However, it was the third man, standing away from the table, leaning against a kitchen counter, that interested him the most. He possessed a rather muscular build and had blond hair with two small strands sticking out from the top and blue eyes. His facial hair consisted of a soul patch and a small stubble along his jawline. He was wearing brown cargo shorts with a dark brown belt, black shoes, a red bandana on his left arm, and a brown leather vest over a tan dress shirt with the right sleeve cut off. In addition to that he was wearing a metal spaulder, leather vambrace, and a brown fingerless glove, all on his right arm. On that same arm he was wearing a tattoo in a shape that gave Nick the very reason to look at him the most out of all 3 people.

'Oh, um, Miss Xiao Long! Please, join us…and, well, whoever it is with you…' Said the overweight man.

'Yes, yes, pull up a chair. Uhhh…chairs actually…' The man in the glasses chaotically added. He was talking really fast, his white noise was even worse than the drunk voice of the overweight guy.

'Ah, you're finally awake. I was starting to think you've slipped into coma.' The blonde man said as Yang approached him closer and Nick just awkwardly stood near the table, unsure if he should sit. The same man then walked up closer to Nick as Yang sat on the kitchen counter.

'How's your ankle?'

'It's fine, sir. Thank you.'

'Oh please, there's no need for such formalities.' The blonde man said and extended his right hand in greeting fashion. He also smiled, quite similarly to Yang. 'Taiyang Xiao Long, Yang's dad. And these two are Peter Port and Bart Oobleck, Beacon teachers.'

Nick shook the blonde man's hand and nodded in the two teachers' direction. After that the one called Port gave him a sign to take a seat. Yang was still on the kitchen counter and the man called Taiyang soon stood next to her.

'What did you say your name was?' The one called Oobleck asked, expectedly, very fast.

'Nick…Nicholas Van Thorne.'

'What a fascinating name. Are you an aristocrat by any chance?' Oobleck asked

Nick only shook his head. Yang then looked at him more intensely and smirked.

'Well then, you must be famished. You've been out for the entire previous day. Anyone else wants a slice of pizza?'

Port and Oobleck shook their heads, but Yang nodded. Taiyang then took the mentioned pizza out of the refrigerator, put two slices on a plate and put it in what seemed to be a microwave.

'Want something to drink in the meantime?' The blonde man asked

'Well, what are you guys having?' Nick responded with a question

'Oh uhm that's just store brand mojito with ice.' Port said

'Then I'll have that.'

Taiyang poured the drink into a small glass and handed it to Nick. Van Thorne put it on the table, near his left hand. After that the microwave let out a sound and Tai took out the two slices of pizza on a plate. Yang took one directly from the plate and afterwards Nick took the plate from Taiyang and was now eating, while Port and Oobleck were sipping their drinks and talking to each other. After a while they raised their glasses.

'Cheers to that!' Port said and hinted at Nick, who had just finished his slice of pizza. Nick raised his glass as well.

' _Na zdrovye!'_ Nick said. Immediately after hearing these strange, foreign words Oobleck, Port and Taiyang looked at Nick with absolute confusion. Yang, on the other hand, only widened her smirk.

Nick noticed that nobody but him understood what he just said and their confusion remained as he was drinking.

'Was that an old Argo-Mistrali phrase?' Oobleck asked with shock

'Yes, it is. Means "cheers".' Nick responded. Confidence was coming back to him and he even smirked

'But isn't that an extinct language?' Port asked

'There is one last place where some people speak it fluently…' Nick said. At that moment his eyes got more visible to the rest of the table. Oobleck and Port both gasped upon seeing the narrow pupils.

'See, that's another reason I invited you today.' Yang's father said

'I can't believe it but…he really is one of them…' Port said

Nick suddenly slurped upon noticing how tense the conversation got all of a sudden. Yang noticed the intensity of the atmosphere as well and got off the kitchen counter.

'NOW I remember where have I seen your tattoo before!' Nick suddenly said, now almost grinning, with his confidence fully back.

Taiyang just stood in shock with his mouth wide open. Yang seemed now confused by what she just heard and soon silently snuck out of the kitchen. Oobleck grunted to remind everyone how silent and tense the atmosphere has become.

'3 years ago you and three other huntsmen were given a mission to rescue survivors from a village that was being scavenged by Grimm after a raid. That village happened to be Gwynbleidd, the village of 6 cultures and my home…'

'Tai, what is he talking about?' Port asked the blonde guy with concern

'You've rescued everyone, but a heavily wounded 15 year old boy, who was stuck under a smoldered shed. You even approached that boy, but two of you just looked into his eyes and immediately decided to leave him for the Grimm. I remember, Taiyang Xiao Long…I was that child.'

Taiyang avoided Nick's eyes as much as he could, the tension was rising. Oobleck and Port were completely silent.

'Young man, I believe you might want to reconsider making these kinds of accusations…' Port said.

But the blonde man just raised his hand, giving the Beacon teacher the sign to be silent.

'Will you…listen to what I have to say?' Taiyang said and finally met his gaze with Nick's. The Hexman just nodded and moved the chair next to him a little. Taiyang took the hint and slowly sat down.

'When we got the mission to rescue survivors from Gwynbleidd, it was our team's reunion event. We've done what we were told, but there weren't that many survivors, many have already escaped the previous night. What our team didn't expect was a Hexman surviving all that bloodbath. You should know, that we had a woman in our team, Raven. She and her brother…they always showed signs of sociopathy. It was Raven's brother, Qrow, who found you in that shed. Me and one other member wanted to rescue you, but Raven threatened to finish you off if we tried, must've been that survival part of her mentality. So…we left. And ever since, there were never any more plans for a team STRQ reunion. I understand you feel hurt by all of us, guess I just wanted to excuse myself…'

After that Taiyang's eyes looked away from Nick. Van Thorne, moved by the story, placed his hand on Xiao Long's arm.

'Even if that was true, I have no reason to hold a grudge on you anymore…' Nick responded

'W-what?' Taiyang stuttered in confusion upon hearing what his guest said

'You're forgetting that merely a couple of hours ago I was knocked unconscious because of my own lack of balance. If it weren't for you and your daughter, I would probably be Grimm food by now…though I could be too skinny for them to eat…'

Taiyang smiled and the atmosphere stopped being so tense in the room. Nick, Oobleck and Port shared the smiles as well and soon all 4 men sat by the table, drinking and chatting about most random things. Oobleck kept asking about foreign languages Nick spoke and Port was talking about what Beacon was like.

'So anyway, Taiyang, since we have the worst behind us, there's a custom among my people, and it's to always repay kindness with more kindness. C'mere, you!'

Nick clearly had too much to drink and was now acting like a friendly drunk. He forcefully hugged Taiyang but the blonde pushed him away gently, because the Hexman hasn't showered in about a week…

'Alright, that might've been too much. But anyway, what's up with that rolled up sleeve on Yang's jacket?'

Taiyang suddenly went sad on his face…

'You…didn't notice?' Port asked

'Notice what?'

'Nicholas…Yang doesn't have a right arm…she lost it a few months ago.' Oobleck said, surprisingly slowly

Nick gaped like a fish at everyone and coughed.

'Well then…I think I know what to do in exchange for this hospitality…where is my coat?'

Taiyang pointed his finger at something that was lying near the kitchen sink. Nick didn't pay attention to it earlier but it was his coat. The Hexman walked up to it and started searching every pocket…until he found what he was looking for.

'There we go.' He said and handed something to Yang's dad.

It was a simple necklace, but it was on a golden chain and it had a strange tiny gem in its center surrounded by golden plating. Xiao Long took it in his hand and looked at Nick with confusion. Oobleck gasped.

'Is that…the amulet of a Hexling?' He asked, sounding a little geeky.

'Indeed it is. I had 3 spares, kept them as souvenirs, this is one of them.' Nick said and genuinely smiled.

'But…I don't know what to do with this…' Taiyang said, slightly upset

'This amulet contains a Dustified soul of a Hexman that offered their soul for future generations. Hexlings are sidekicks of Hexmen, very often remaining by their sides. Most importantly, Hexlings don't undergo the Hexman initiation but do gain some of their skills. But this amulet's most important feature is that before turning into a Hexling, the amulet is obliged to grant its bearer with some kind of wish. Thing is, that wish can only be related to the bearer. Now, normally if I were to have a Hexling, I would have to present the candidate to the establishment of the Brotherhood first but…well, at this point there are no obstacles.'

Taiyang kept looking at Nick with confusion but took the amulet from him. The Hexman nodded and went back to drinking and chatting with the two Beacon teachers. The atmosphere seemed to get a lot less tense…

Little did Nick know, Yang was by the stairs and heard most of the things. She heard how Nick thanks her and her dad for hospitality and the bit about Hexlings. She looked at her own stump under the rolled up sleeve of her jacket and smiled. After that she went to sleep as she heard Nick and her dad walk Port and Oobleck to the exit.

'So, Nick, if you're ever in Beacon or Vale, give us a call, aye?' Port said, a little swaying from being drunk...

'Already thought of that!' Nick said and waved his scroll in the older man's face.

'We have to go now, ferry leaves in about 15 minutes! It was a pleasure meeting you, Nicholas!' Oobleck said and erratically shook Nick's hand. After that the two walked away and when Taiyang and the Hexman made sure they're safe, they both went back inside.

'So, would you like to test the amulet on Yang tomorrow?' Nick asked the blonde guy, who was aimlessly staring at the gift he received from him

'I...I honestly don't know, Nick. My mind isn't in the right place, so much has happened this evening...I need a few minutes of shuteye...'

'Of course, no problem...can I sleep on the couch or should I see myself out?' Nick asked

The tired face of Taiyang suddenly lit up and he looked at Nick with what seemed like disgust.

'Are you kidding?! I wouldn't dare kick you out, it's way too cold outside and you're my guest! You can sleep in the bed you woke up in.'

'But it's obvious that room is someone's. I wouldn't want to sleep in there if they return...'

Taiyang immediately went sad on his face. He looked down on the floor and started to slowly walk away.

'Just...go to sleep there. They won't return...'

Nick suddenly got worried that he might've made his newly found potential friend remember something bad. Despite that, he followed what Xiao Long said and went back to the bed he was in when Yang woke him up.

It was then that he noticed something on the little whatnot next to the bed. It was a photo in a wooden frame. He picked it up, even though he promised himself he won't snoop in his helpers' stuff, and looked closely. He recognized Taiyang and Yang, the blonde guy holding his daughter by the shoulder...but there were two other figures Nick didn't recognize at all. They were two women, very similar in appearance. One was a toddler and was held in the hands of a different woman. She was fair-skinned, had black, neck-length, choppy hair that gradated to dark red at the tips and eyes that were...silver. And the toddler also had that same eye color. At that moment Nick had a flashback upon seeing the woman on the photo...

'We're leaving him. Qrow, come on!'

'Raven, are you sure? We were told to rescue ANY survivors we find...'

'If I give him the treatment for a weakling, he won't be a survivor anymore...'

'Are you crazy?! He's just a child, look at him!'

'And a Hexman! If he's strong enough, he'll survive...'

'How can you be so cold hearted? What if this was Yang or Ruby? Would you leave them to Grimm as well?'

'You have no right to judge me, Summer...'

Summer...that was her name...

Nick only had flashes of consciousness when the collapsed shed was lying on him. But soon he felt a firm, yet gentle pull. He had no strength to look where the pull came from, he saw nothing but a foggy silhouette dressed in white, black and grey.

'Summer! You're gonna fall behind!'

Nick heard Taiyang's voice in the distance...

'Hush, child...you're safe now...' A soft whisper echoed through Nick's mind, coming from the silhouette. After that he felt someone's cold hands moving away locks of his hair until a soft sensation went from his forehead to the rest of his body. Those were the silhouette's lips on his forehead...and it was then he saw silver eyes for the first time...

'Summer!'

Nick shook his head and the flashback immediately went away. He really wanted to sleep now as the alcohol was slowly moving towards its headache phase. He put the photograph away and laid himself to sleep. He tossed in his sleep a few times before finally closing his eyes. As he was drifting away, he could also hear Yang tossing in another room.

As it turned out, Nick woke up the first. He didn't put on his t-shirt after getting off the bed and went downstairs with his bare chest. His athletic build was the only thing manly there, while his narrow hips could really make others think he's a girl. He went to the kitchen but it was still empty.

"Well I guess it won't hurt to make breakfast for once." Nick thought to himself and ostentatiously looked inside the fridge, bending over a little that his butt could look funny from a distance...

'Hmmm...eggs, milk, flour, whipped cream, peach sauce...should be enough to make crepes.' Nick said to himself as he took ingredients out of the fridge. He then started preparations.

In the meantime, Yang woke up. A birdsong from behind her window did the trick. The blonde girl looked through it and let out a loud sigh. After that she went downstairs to the kitchen...that is when she saw Nick.

The Hexman was holding a frying pan with one hand, while the other held a spatula. Yang leaned against a wall and looked at him, trying to hold her laughter in. She could see a plate already full of fried breakfast next to the stove, but Nick still seemed to be getting pissed off.

'Come on, just this once...alright, fuck it. I'm flipping your ass myself!'

Yang snickered as quietly as she could, seeing Nick getting angry at a pancake. She watched as Van Thorne carefully took the pan in his hands and seemed like he was about to flip it...but then Yang sneezed.

'Gaaah!' Nick screamed. He managed to flip the crepe but it went so far when he looked up he saw it sticking from the ceiling. He gave Yang a slightly disappointed look.

'You did that on purpose.' Nick said without any emotions

'N-no...I didn't...' Yang responded, now hardly containing her laughter and the will to comment on seeing Nick's bare chest without any bandages, which was making her quite impressed and pleased with the sight. In the meantime Nick was just shaking his head. After a short awkward stare at Yang's neck area, Nick looked up. 'Alright, this one's on me.' He said and sighed. At that moment the crepe glued itself off the ceiling and fell right on the top of Nick's head. At that moment Yang burst with laughter. After an attempt at keeping a straight face, Nick also started laughing as he was taking the food off his head. He then realized how beautiful Yang's laugh sounds. It was loud, bright and waiting to get out. He realized how glad he is that he could repay her for hospitality with the Hexling amulet...

When Taiyang came downstairs, Nick and Yang already prepared everything on the table.

'Oh wow, what's that for?' Taiyang asked

'I woke up early so I thought I'd also personally thank for that snack yesterday. I hope I didn't mess up too bad with these crepes. Haven't made them in a while...' Nick said as Yang was placing mug after mug on the table filled with steamy coffee.

'Well...I'm at a loss of words...I'm really liking what I'm seeing...' Taiyang said as he was sitting down on his spot, still quite shocked. Yang then gave Nick a look, eyeing his bare chest in particular. 'Me too, dad...me too...' She said and smirked.

Nick went upstairs and returned in his red t-shirt, not wanting any more weird looks from Yang. They ate in silence, until Taiyang suddenly raised a question.

'So, Yang, Nick has a gift for you...'

Upon hearing that, Van Thorne slurped on his coffee. Taiyang then took out the Hexling amulet from yesterday and handed it to his daughter. The beautiful blonde looked at it for a second and turned her sights at Nick with a confused look.

'I know it looks like a regular locket, but this is quite a powerful artifact. Basically, you put it around your neck, we do a little ritual and...uhm, it would be easier to just show you. I'll instruct you.' The Hexman said.

'I won't have to put a feather up my butt or anything?' Yang asked

'Oh no no no, of course not!' Nick responded with a bit of curiosity in his mind. 'But it would be better if we did this outdoors.'

After breakfast, Nick put on the rest of his clothes and went outside. Yang was already there, Taiyang soon followed.

'Is it going to be safe?' He asked

'It should go smoothly. Just bring me a lit torch.' Nick responded

Tai looked with a worried look at Van Thorne but the Hexman only nodded to assure Xiao Long that he has everything under control. Tai disappeared then in house and Nick approached Yang closer. She had the amulet tied around her neck earlier by her father.

'Now what you want to do is repeat after me, very clearly.' Nick said

Yang just nodded and Nick drew one of his swords. He made a gentle cut from it in his right hand just so that blood starts slowly dripping out. Yang squirmed upon seeing that, but then noticed that the gem in the amulet around her starts glowing turquoise.

'By the sacred grounds of Gwynbleidd, I call the soul encased within the amulet, to show its true form to the blood of its kin!'

The incantation from Nick's lips made the amulet to grow even brighter, while his hand started hurting. Yang felt as a huge aura surge circles around her and within her. At that moment Taiyang came back with the torch. Upon seeing Yang and her golden hair waving chaotically in the air while Nick holds his hand up gave him the wrong idea.

'What the hell are you doing?!' Taiyang yelled as the aura surge was causing the wind around everyone to blow harder

'Just give me the torch!' Nick yelled back.

'But...'

'DO IT!'

Taiyang instinctively threw the torch to Nick without the time to ask further questions. The Hexman caught the torch and suddenly the wind stopped blowing so hard and soon reduced to a simple breeze. Yang seemed shocked. So much in fact that she wobbled on her feet and needed to take a seat on the grass.

Meanwhile, the torch Nick held with his slightly bleeding hand, had its flame color changed. From its regular color it became turquoise, just like the gem on Yang's amulet earlier. Now the amulet had no gem in it, just the golden plating. Yang was panting really hard as Nick approached her closer with the torch.

'What is thine name, spirit?' Nick asked the flame as it seemed. Yang was utterly confused.

'Urumuda.' Suddenly an echoing low voice came out of the flame.

'Now is the time for you to think of that wish, Yang.' Nick looked at Yang for a split second after saying that but immediately after that he focused his sight back on the flame of the torch.

'Bearer of the torch, do you vow to guard the life of your protege as if it was your own? Do you swear upon the honor of your kin and yours that you will train your Hexling fairly? Finally, do you promise to do everything you can to never wrong your Hexling?' The voice recited.

'Yes, brother Urumuda, I do.' Nick calmly responded and nodded to Yang, giving her a signal to think on her wish. After that he walked up even closer to the girl until he was standing right above her.

'For it is in sacrifice, that we achieve immortality.' Nick and the voice within the flame synchronically said, creeping Yang out a little. After that incantation, Nick took air in his lungs and blew at the flame. It spread right at Yang, Taiyang was about to scream from seeing the ritual before him. When the flames faded, Nick tossed the now extinguished torch away. He offered Yang his hand to get up. The girl accepted...and then noticed Nick lifted her up by her right hand. The same hand that was severed off months ago.

'Wh-What?' Yang couldn't believe her eyes. She looked from every angle. Her arm was fully back and she could freely move it, including her fingers. And it wasn't mechanical. It was her own flesh, covered in her delicate skin, the same she liked to rub on her cheeks with moisturizing cream every day in front of the mirror.

'I kinda expected you to wish for that...' Nick said and looked down on the ground.

Yang started to slowly chuckle from happiness and Nick now could see her gorgeous lilac eyes brightening up a lot more. He was also happy with that to the point he started to sound chaotic.

'We have this saying among Hexmen. "Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, kindness for more kindness". I heard about your condition yesterday and you took such care of me, carried me away from the crash site so I just thought I'd...'

Nick didn't finish because all of a sudden he felt a great deal of force squeezing him. Upon slightly looking down, he could see Yang glued onto his chest, squeezing him in what seemed to be a really tight hug. At that point he decided to just stop talking and return the hug to the beautiful girl. Taiyang watched everything from a distance and shed a tear. "He's such a kind soul. It's almost outrageous, how much self-sacrifice this child holds within him. And to think we almost lost that kindness to the Grimm. To think we lost faith in it for such a long time. To think I...almost haven't survived to see this with my own eyes..."

Upon these thoughts Taiyang Xiao Long turned to his right. A slight distance away from him there was a cliff, and close to its edge stood a gravestone. That gravestone had a burning rose emblem engraved in it and underneath it there were words: "Thus kindly I scatter". Taiyang shed more tears and barely wiped them from the corners of his eyes as Yang was still clinging onto Nick. 'Oy, Yang, come on now! This is starting to feel uncomfortable!' Nick said loudly. 'Nuh uh, I am not letting you go until you promise you'll let me take a better look at you shirtless!' She mischievously said without looking at him. 'Eeeeeeeeh?!' Nick wailed, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets. 'Thank you...Summer.' Taiyang said to himself, wiping away more of his tears of joy.


	5. The Flame Of The Past

Yang eventually let go of Nick and Taiyang really insisted for him to take a shower. Van Thorne didn't feel 100% comfortable with taking off his shirt, almost feeling Yang's eyes on him. The girl was starting to behave...weird, ever since Nick used a Hexling amulet on her. But despite his slight paranoia, the Hexman felt the same comfort as ever while showering. The thought of finally feeling clean was like a breath of fresh air for him. As the water was caressing his hair he actually felt a little aroused. He didn't enjoy it, but the way he felt so clean after turning the water off compensated that. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around his head to wipe his hair...when suddenly he heard the door creaking. He instinctively took the towel off his head and tried to desperately wrap it around his waist, but it was too late.

When Yang entered the bathroom by accident, their eyes immediately met. Nick went crimson on his face and puffed his cheeks like he was about to burst. He thought the blonde hellion would leave immediately. But that's not what happened. Yang instead started gaping like a fish...and her eyes started to slowly drift down from Nick's eyes. It was then that Van Thorne let out an earth-shattering scream.

'Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!'

After that the door to the bathroom immediately slammed shut. Taiyang jumped in place on his sofa downstairs.

'I'm so sorry, so sorry!' Yang was trying to excuse herself while also holding back laughter, considering Nick's scream was so girly.

'Y-you...you pervert! You insolent blonde...spider monkey!' Nick yelled from inside the bathroom, furious about anyone seeing him naked.

'What the hell was that?!' Taiyang asked from mid-stairs.

'I was just going to get a comb, I didn't know he was in there!' Yang said, leaning against the bathroom door. But her dad just gave her a disappointed look. 'Come on, dad, you know I wouldn't do something like that on purpose!'

'That's unfortunately debatable...' Taiyang replied, sighed and walked up the stairs towards the bathroom. He knocked a few times. 'Nick, you alright there?'

For a few seconds all Yang and her dad heard coming from the bathroom was quiet sobbing combined with angry grumbling, which sounded cute to both of them...

'Yes, I'm alright...' Nick whimpered with a slightly quieter voice. "Oh stop overreacting," Yang thought to herself and rolled her eyes when her dad gave her another piercing look.

'Wanna help me put the bike back together?' Tai asked and smiled at his daughter after looking angry for a short time. Yang smirked and nodded. The two left and when Nick made sure he can't hear any footsteps anymore he started wiping himself more erratically with the towel. Once he was dry, he looked at his reflection in the mirror. His hair was an utter mess, he looked like a glam metal musician after a concert. He needed a comb, so that's exactly what he did and afterwards he got dressed. It felt particularly good to put on pants at that moment for Nick. Cautiously, the Hexman snuck out of the bathroom and started walking down the stairs. Yang's and Taiyang's boots weren't standing near the front door, so Nick thought about going outdoors and apologizing for throwing insults at the blonde girl. He put on his own boots and went out through the front door. He looked to his right...and noticed something in the distance. Something that seemed like an oddly shaped rock. He started walking towards it until he was close enough to make out what was written on it. "Thus kindly I scatter" and a rose emblem above it. There was also another inscription covered partially by dirt. Nick kneeled on one of his knees and brushed the dirt away with his gloved hand. The inscription said "Summer Rose".

At first Nick was trying to think that it was someone else, but then he had the flashback again and realized he's kneeling before the gravestone of a woman, who once saved his life. Upon this realization, Nick started to understand why Taiyang was so upset about him mentioning the room he slept in the day before. After holding back tears for a few minutes, Nick took a seat close to the said gravestone.

'Hello...Summer, was it? We've never had a chance to be properly introduced. I guess there was no occasion. I have to say, I'm a little upset about it. But it isn't your fault in any way...death doesn't care about time, after all. I'm more upset about myself. Upset that I didn't find you earlier. I never managed to thank you for what you did...back then, at Gwynbleidd. And for that I know I will never be able to repay you, but...I'll do my best to find and protect your daughter. She has your eyes, after all. Well...I guess that's all I can really say. Take care...Rose...'

After saying these words Nick looked a little at the landscape in front of him before standing up and moving back towards the house. It was then that he heard sounds of a fight coming from Taiyang's garden. He walked up a little faster to the source of the noise...

Yang was sparring with her dad. It seemed like they were practicing hand to hand combat. Nick got closer to that garden and sat on the ground. Suddenly he noticed that there's a dog to his right, an adorable black and white corgi with a collar around its neck. It was breathing heavily with its tongue stuck out. Nick was more of a cat person, but he ostentatiously smiled at the sight of the little animal. He didn't even hear at first the loud slam on the ground happening at some point. But when he turned his sights towards the sparring match all he could see was Yang on the ground and Taiyang going for the towels that the corgi was sitting next to.

'Nick, please get up from the ground. Wouldn't want to stain your pants with dirt one day after they came out of the washing.' Taiyang said.

Nick nodded and got up from the ground. He slowly walked up to the still knocked out Yang and looked at her from above.

'Quite an original way to get used to your new arm...' He said and smiled. He already forgot the embarrassment he got from the girl before.

'You know, not every day you see ghosts actually helping people.' Yang responded and quickly got up from the ground with a smirk.

'Point taken. But why would you choose this of all hand activities available?' Nick said and immediately regretted it when Yang snickered.

'I don't think you really need to know that...' Yang said and tried to look another way.

'This must have something to do with Ruby then.' Nick said and regretted his words again, this time thinking he must've been too blunt.

Yang's eyes immediately brightened up but she was in utter shock. How would Nick know? Her dad didn't tell him, the teachers didn't tell him, she didn't tell him...

'Ruby's gone to Mistral. She and a few...mutual friends...' She vaguely said while caressing her hair.

'Well then...would you like to go and look for her with me?' Nick said out of the blue and stretched his hand forward.

Yang's eyes got even wider and she took a step back from Van Thorne.

'You...you're not going to ask for more details?'

'Hmmmm...she's your sister, your dad is upset about her missing and we both know where she is. I think that's enough information for me right now.'

After these words Nick just smirked back at Yang, satisfied that he could get back at her for earlier. Yang hesitated, but she shook Van Thorne's hand.

'We should get home. It's going to be lunchtime soon.' Yang quickly changed the subject and walked away towards the house. Nick soon followed, but he still hasn't asked himself how is he going to convince Taiyang...

'Uhhhh...Nick? Do Hexmen have any particular allergies?' Yang's dad asked from the kitchen as his daughter and Van Thorne came in.

Nick just stepped into the kitchen, seeing Taiyang wearing a pretty comical apron, and shook his head.

'Ah, good, because I thought you'd be lactose intolerant or allergic to gluten for some reason.' The guy responded and chuckled before returning to cooking.

'Dad, I need to tell you something.' All of a sudden Yang appeared right alongside Nick in the kitchen. He tried to stop the girl, giving her signs that she's not being very subtle about it, but she didn't seem to notice his weird facial expressions. He was desperately trying to do something so that she stops being so serious before she says a little too much...but Taiyang just stopped cooking for a moment.

'I know, I heard you two talking.' He said without turning to look at them and sighed. He then proceeded to continue cooking. Nick gave Yang an irritated look while she just shrugged with a dumb smirk. They both sat down by the table, waiting for the girl's dad to join them. Taiyang finished making food, left it on the pan and came over to the table.

'So...Mistral, huh?' He said and paused awkwardly.

Nick didn't respond. Yang just nodded and looked down. After a few tense minutes Xiao Long's face brightened up.

'I knew it can't be helped. After all, you miss Ruby quite a lot. And you, Nicholas...' After these words Taiyang glared at Nick.

'I'll bring them both back safe. I'll do everything I can.' Van Thorne knew what Tai was about to say and did it for him. Yang's dad just nodded and smiled.

'Well, I still won't let you go out there without a good meal first. Traveling on an empty stomach is inadvisable at best.' He said and returned to the frying pan.

After the meal Nick put on his coat and was checking the mechanisms in his sleeves. Once he made sure everything is fine, he put on one of his gloves...when suddenly he realized something.

'Ummmm...Taiyang? Where's my hat?' He asked.

The blonde man just peeked from behind the kitchen door.

'It's not above the coat hanger? I'm sure I put it there.'

Nick was about to respond to that when all of a sudden Yang landed in the corridor jumping enthusiastically off the staircase, wearing a completely different outfit. She was wearing a tan jacket with orange lining and gold edging, unzipped halfway to show an orange crop top. The coat had darker brown short sleeves and a thick collar that completely encircled her neck, and two long gold-trimmed rectangular tails, possibly detachable. She was also wearing fitted black pants and her hair seemed to be let down even more. Around her hips and over the tails of her coat was a brown belt, which had two pieces of dark brown material trimmed in gold attached to it. The first covered from her left hip to the back of the belt and was folded over the belt, and the second was attached from the right hip and almost around to the other piece of material. Along with that she was wearing knee high brown boots with gold caps on the heel and toe, with the heel cap attaching to a gold strap across the front of her ankle, and a gold zipper on the upper half of the front of the boots. A single small buckled strap was on the upper outside of her boots, and a purple bandana tied around her left knee. A pair of black fingerless gloves with long brown cuffs reaching to mid forearm completed the outfit...except for one last shape on her head, very familiar to Nick.

'Howdy, partner. Ready to head out?' Said the blonde girl, tipping Nick's hat on her head to him. He then noticed she has the exact same sunglasses as him. But those were already in his pocket, unlike the hat.

Taiyang whistled impressed while Nick only groaned and walked up to Yang. She took the hint and took his hat off and handed it to him. Van Thorne put his own hat on and the other glove as well. Yang in the meantime put two strange yellow bracelets around her wrists.

'Aw, what a cute couple of travelers.' Said Taiyang and took a photo with his scroll.

'Dad, you're making this awkward.' Yang said and chuckled. Nick pulled his hat down, trying to cover the blush that formed on his face.

After that Nick and Yang left the house and were on their way to head out. Yang brought her bike over, informing Van Thorne that his chopper still hasn't been repaired yet.

'We'll take a boat to Anima and head from the coast towards Higanbana, we'll rest there and make sure the rest of the road is safe. From what I heard on the news, there tends to be a lot of pretty tough Grimm in the Oniyuri and Kuroyuri area.' Said the blonde girl as she was sitting on her bike. Nick anxiously sat right behind her, awkwardness overwhelming him. He put his hands behind his back, but the girl just looked at him over her shoulder.

'You know, I'm not the safest driver around so...'

'So?'

'You should hold onto me while we'll be driving.'

Nick blushed even more red and Yang giggled.

'B-but...my hands are really cold...' Nick said, stuttering a lot.

'So what?'

'You've got bare hips, that's what!'

'Oh come on now, stop making excuses, Nicholas Van Dense!' After these words a mischievous smile formed on Yang's face and she forcefully grabbed Nick's hands and placed them on her hips. A shiver went through Van Thorne's spine. He never touched a girl before and that was really showing. "Okay, I'll play along. Just...don't hold onto her with the rest of your body." He thought to himself, ostentatiously moving back a little in his seat, so that he doesn't land on Yang's half of it, simply because that would only make the situation even more embarrassing. It seemed like she was aware of that and was intentionally making him embarrassed.

'Alright then. Let's go!' Said the blonde girl and dropped the sunglasses from her forehead onto the nose. After that she started the engine, roared it a few times and drove away from her house. Nick looked back one last time, wondering how is he gonna reclaim his bike once it's repaired.

They arrived at the Patch Island harbor quite quickly. Yang's driving skills were far more rough than Nick's and for some reason he was glad he held onto her waist throughout all the first part of the ride. Nevertheless, he was glad to get off and lean against the vehicle to stop his legs from wobbling. Yang was also leaning against her bike, smirking at the clearly pale from fear Nick.

'Told you, I'm a little rough.' She said.

'That's...really NOT the good kind of rough.' Nick responded, still shivering a little.

'And what kind is?' Yang asked, wiggling her eyebrows in a suggestive way. Nick raised his finger but instead just sighed and looked away from her, while a shit eating grin threatened to tear the girl's face apart.

The ship arrived soon, according to the schedule pinned to the nearby board it was heading to a coastal village in Anima, Nick didn't catch its name. He started walking towards the deck, making sure Yang and her motorcycle are nearby. At some point, he was approached by an unknown captain.

'Tickets.' He said without emotions. He wasn't nearly as nice as the captain Nick talked to before.

Van Thorne then took out the brooch from his pocket and waved it in the captain's face. He raised his eyebrow and looked at Yang and her bike.

'Very well then.' He said and walked away. Nick then decided to help Yang with putting the bike away.

'Put the bumblebee over there, by the wall.' The blonde girl said, letting go.

'Bumblebee? What a stupid name.' Nick responded in a snarky way.

'What? You'd prefer I called it "Wasp"?' Yang asked and giggled again.

'That name's already taken. And thankfully, not by a motorcycle OR an airship.' Nick said and let go of the motorcycle.

After that banter the Hexman and Xiao Long walked up to the main deck, where there was a big sofa for them to sit on. As they relaxed, Yang couldn't help but strike up yet another conversation with her new companion.

'Do you get seasick?' She asked.

'Nope. Last time I ever actually threw up was when I ate a double kebab on a dare.'

'What's a kebab?' Yang was clearly confused and now was directly looking Nick into the eyes.

'Uhhh...it's sort of like street food, back in my hometown, in one of the districts. You have lamb or chicken from a skewer wrapped in a pancake with some sauce and salad and fried. Maybe I shouldn't talk about that though. I tend to get hungry really easily.' Nick said and shut his eyes to stop thinking about that.

'Speaking of food, have you noticed the buffet yet?' Yang asked.

'Only that vending machine there if you need a drink.' Nick said and pointed his finger somewhere else.

After these words the ship started to slowly sail off the coast of Patch Island. The waves were gently shaking the deck Nick and Yang sat on. Eventually, the Hexman felt the need to take a nap from feeling like in a hammock. Unfortunately, some of the waves were gently moving his ragdoll body and Nick didn't even feel the moment his head reached something soft and stopped moving. This time, it was Yang's turn to blush.

'You two look just adorable.' Said some old man walking by the blonde girl, who was awkwardly sitting with Nick's head resting on her shoulder, the Hexman cutely purring through his sleep.

Xiao Long still doesn't know why, but that old man, for some reason, made her feel a little suspicious. She gently moved her shoulder away from the sleeping Hexman and when his head hit the surface of the sofa, he rapidly woke up with an interrupted snore.

'Huh? Huh? What?' Nick said with a slightly sleepy voice.

'Oh, uhm...I'm going to grab a coffee from that vending machine, do you want one as well?' Yang asked.

'I'll go with you, maybe I won't feel so sleepy anymore.' Nick said and stood up from the couch. After that he slowly followed Yang towards the vending machine in the next room. Once they got there and pressed the button to make coffee, they heard the toilet flush nearby. From behind the closed door the same old man walked out. He was oddly dressed, to say the least. A long red trench coat, bizarre leg armor complete with boots surrounding his black chaps, gauntlets on hands, spaulders in red and yellow and a cotton shirt made her suspicious.

'Getting coffee, I see.' He said and smiled in a surprisingly creepy way as he was grabbing another one of the disposable cups to pour water into it. This time, it was Nick who noticed something odd about him. When he got the cup closer to his lips, a small stream of steam left the cup, as if the water was boiling. The water dispenser, however, only served it cold. Nick raised his eyebrow, the old man noticed it. The creepy smile left his face and now he was only staring intensely at the Hexman.

'Here you go.' Yang said and bumped Nick in the shoulder. When he turned around she passed him the cup with coffee. The two stood there and drank the hot liquid. At some point, however, Nick decided to break the silence.

'That old guy...something's not right about him...' He said, taking a sip

'You noticed as well?' Yang responded with a question after licking the coffee foam off her upper lip. 'I swear, I thought I saw a flame in his eyes. And not like a gleam or anything. It was like he had smelters for eyes.'

'Right, it's suspicious as hell. He seems to have went that way.' Nick said and nodded his head in the direction where the nearest doors were.

'That's the engine room. Security's tight there, passengers aren't allowed without authorization.' Yang said and gripped the tip of her cup tighter.

'We have to investigate it. If it's a terrorist, instead of Haven all we'll see will be the bottom of the sea. Come on, finish your coffee and let's go.'

After about two minutes, both Nick and Yang were behind the mysterious door, trying to catch up to the suspicious old man. Nick drew his gun and Yang's bracelets extended to her entire forearms, turning into gauntlets with what appeared to be a shotgun barrel cleverly hidden within. At some point Nick stopped Yang for a second and kneeled on one knee.

'Take a look at this.' Nick pointed to the ground and instructed Yang to look at it. Upon closer look, Xiao Long noticed that there's a burned out boot print in the steel floor. She shivered and looked around her.

'I've dealt in the past with a guy who would leave these kinds of marks on the ground after a fight.' Yang said.

'But I doubt he would also leave this.' Nick said and rubbed his hand on the boot print. When he raised his fingers, their tips were covered in a yellow powder.

'Traces of Lightning Dust?' Yang asked.

'No, worse. It's sulfur. We must hurry, he could have a makeshift bomb.' Nick said and cocked his gun.

Yang and Nick started to slowly sneak up towards the next door following the trail of boot prints. It lead to the room with the engine's cooling system. Nick gently pushed the door and used the loud noises of the turbines to sneak inside and hide under a nearby terminal. Yang soon followed, but her steps weren't nearly as subtle as his and he was afraid the terrorist might catch them.

But instead, they somehow heard footsteps despite all the noise. After a while the figure that took these steps pushed a few buttons on the terminal underneath which they hid and the turbines slowed down, its noise almost completely fading away. It was then that the same figure took more steps, leaving behind more scorched boot prints and stench of sulfur.

'I know you're in here.' The voice said. It sounded like the old man from earlier, but this time his voice sounded slightly more raspy and had some sort of reverb to it.

Yang's breathing sped up. Nick remained cool, but in reality he was also really scared. Despite that he covered the girl's mouth with one hand to slow down her rapid breathing. It was in that moment that Nick and Yang heard another pair of footsteps. It wasn't the old man this time, because they could see his shadow behind the sheet the terminal was covered in.

'Did you really think you could escape anywhere?' The same old man said and the two heard him unsheathing a weapon, most probably a sword. After that they heard a gunshot from a distance and the shadowy figure froze in place and let out a chuckle. It sounded ominous.

'It's adorable how you humans will do anything to run from your destiny.' The old man said and at that moment Nick and Yang heard crackling, like from a fire. After that the figure swung its blade which was immediately followed by someone in the distance launching themselves off the ground and grabbing onto the nearby column.

'We have to do something! This guy's using fire!' Yang whispered to Nick in fear.

'I agree. If he walks up with that flame to one of the cooling turbines or the main engine, we'll all be in danger!' Nick whispered in response.

Once the shadowy figure disappeared, Nick and Yang slowly crawled out from under the terminal and managed to get a glimpse of the unknown terrorist from behind. He was dressed up just like the old man from before but had a sword in his hand that was on fire. Nick walked up to the terminal as Yang kept an eye out if he turns around. "Turning the turbines back on should reduce the danger coming from that sword of his." The Hexman thought to himself and started pressing the right buttons on the terminal, hiding his gun in his sleeve beforehand. Once the turbines returned to their noisy state, the figure rapidly turned around and noticed Nick and Yang. The girl clenched her fists and Van Thorne grabbed a hold of his sword, ready to fight the terrorist now that the lives of all the ship's passengers weren't threatened. They both only managed to catch a glimpse of him, as he was wearing a hood over his head. But they noticed that his skin was blood red and his face didn't seem human. Suddenly, to his right and left fireballs emerged as if out of thin air. He then swung his sword, stopping its blade from burning and covered his mouth.

'This isn't over, do you hear me?!' He yelled from behind the sleeve of his coat as the fireballs started spinning around him, making him disappear into a few smoking embers. He was gone, leaving Nick and Yang confused as hell.

That was when they noticed the other figure that was in the engine room. It was also hooded, but its robe with the hood was dark brown and it was leaning against the column on a very narrow ledge. Yang pointed her gauntlets at it, but Nick instructed her to lay down her weapons.

'We're not looking for trouble. We just don't want the ship to go down.' Nick yelled out loud to the hooded figure.

At that moment the figure jumped down from the column and landed on its feet swiftly. As it rose up from the ground, Nick and Yang noticed that this time, the face of the figure was human and they were smiling.

'You have no idea how happy I am to see a friendly face again…Yang…' The hooded figure spoke and raised their head, showing for a split-second green, gleaming eyes. It was a woman.

Nick gave Yang a questioning look, but she merely gaped like a fish as her gauntlets turned back into bracelets. Upon seeing that, the hooded figure grabbed onto the ropes that were tying the robe around her, untied it and threw it off her body.

She revealed to not be over the age of 17, her hair red in a waist-length ponytail, curled slightly into a loose ringlet. She was wearing a brown overbust corset with a vertical strip of lighter brown in the center, an elastic, black, A-line mini skirt and brown opera-length gloves on both arms. Additionally, there was a small circular bronze plate on her right hip opposite two pouches with both connected to a belt. Underneath her hair, she was wearing a brown circlet adorned with a pair of small, green, teardrop-shaped emeralds on thin chains. She also sported a large bronze gorget around her neck and a bronze bracelet on the upper half of her left arm, elaborate bronze greaves that started below her mid-thigh before continuing downwards into her boots as well as a pair of cuisses that began mid-thigh and ended slightly above her knees. Her high-heeled boots were brown with bronze trim, matching her skirt and sleeves and reaching up to mid-calf.

After a few minutes of initial shock, Yang collapsed on the ground in shock. Nick immediately kneeled and helped her get back up.

'Nick…I think I just saw a ghost…' She mumbled, hardly containing her tears hiding her true emotions. The girl then walked up to both of them and gave Yang a pat on the arm to show her that she's real.

'I don't know how this girl knows you but considering she just touched you she can't be a ghost, can she?'

The "ghost" chuckled and was now looking at Nick.

'I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting yet…Nick, am I correct?' She said.

'And…who exactly are you, that she just called you a ghost?'

'My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I'll explain everything to you…but not here. It's too noisy and I haven't eaten anything yet. Let's go to the buffet, shall we?'


	6. Through The Villages Of Anima

'How can you eat this?' Yang said with a slight hint of disgust as she looked at Pyrrha eating a shrimp cocktail with eggs and mayonnaise in the ship's buffet. Nick was just awkwardly staring at them both, chewing on a triangular sandwich. Pyrrha gave Yang an intense stare and slurped the shrimp that was stuck in her mouth. After some awkward silence, Yang went back to sipping water she bought for herself and Pyrrha continued with her meal. Nick decided to ease the atmosphere in some way.

'So…you two know each other?' He asked.

Pyrrha didn't look at him, focusing more on her cocktail and Yang nodded, with the water bottle still near her mouth.

'We were in Beacon together, but on different teams.' Yang said with suspicion in her voice.

'You were on team RWBY, I heard. But you?' Nick asked and turned his eyes at Pyrrha, who was close to finishing her cocktail.

'JNPR. Mine was called team JNPR.' The redhead said as she wiped some small mayonnaise stains off her chin with a napkin. 'And speaking of which, would you mind filling me in on what did I miss for the past month?'

After these words from Pyrrha, Yang slammed her fist into the small round table, startling both Pyrrha and Nick. The Hexman could see as a few more tears drip from her eyes onto the table and a small dent in the wood. Yang was in some sort of shock.

'How can you be so casual about all this?! Ruby told me she saw you die, all the rest of your team already mourned you and now, after all these weeks you come back as if nothing happened and expect us not to ask you questions?'

'Yang, please calm down. People might get suspicious over us.' Nick said and gently touched her shoulder. But even though her eye color changed back to lilac from red she didn't seem calm yet.

'Nick, you don't understand! She was dead, pierced by an arrow right through the heart and turned into embers just like that guy from the engine room. I am happy that despite that not making sense she is alive but…the fact that she doesn't even acknowledge what happened just makes me want to…'

'Alright, that's enough. You didn't even give her a chance yet to explain herself, maybe we should hear what she has to say. Look, I'll get you some tea and then we'll talk properly.' Nick said and rose up from his seat. He went to the nearest vending machine with hot drinks and picked some green tea. He was back quickly and passed the cup to Yang. After that he returned to biting on the sandwich he still didn't finish. But this time he noticed Pyrrha's tense look on him and the bite from the sandwich suddenly made him cough.

'Oh no, I'm sorry!' Pyrrha suddenly became worried and started to gently pat Nick's back.

After a few weird noises Nick managed to pull himself together. He took one last look at the sandwich and put it away for now.

'Let me start in that case.' Yang said. She seemed calmer after Nick brought her the green tea. 'Who was that guy, the one we saw calling you in the engine room?'

Pyrrha looked at Yang and sighed. She crossed her arms and looked down on the ground.

'That…was my nemesis. Someone who hurt me really bad and someone I'm glad I escaped.' She said with clear sadness in her voice.

'You mean that was Cinder?' Yang asked, but the redhead only shook her head.

'Cinder merely sent me there. That man, that…thing…it was worse than anything I've ever endured before…' She said, hardly stopping tears with her breath.

Nick raised one of his eyebrows and so did Yang.

'You've said that you were sent THERE…despite Yang saying you actually died…what exactly do you mean by THERE?' Nick asked.

Pyrrha closed her eyes and after opening them she looked Nick deeply in his. The Hexman could see that her eyes were still swollen a little, making him think she was crying not too long ago.

'Hell…Inferno…the Underworld…the Void of Souls…whatever you wish to call it…'

A shiver went down Nick's spine. He didn't expect to hear such a gritty description. Yang awkwardly stared into her cup of tea as Pyrrha's tense stare at Nick was slowly fading…

'I'm sorry for prying.' Nick reflected after a while.

Pyrrha only smiled and sat back in her chair.

'Is it possible to get another meal here?' The redhead asked, a smile slowly forming on her face now.

'I only have 5 Liens left. Should be enough for the herring salad but we'll have to get a paid odd job once we reach Anima.' Yang said and got up from her chair.

'Extra cash won't hurt.' Nick said as he followed her leaving towards the buffet with a smile.

'So…you're going to Anima?'Pyrrha asked Nick.

'Yes. Yang believes her sister might be hiding in Haven with her friends. I just tagged along to repay the kindness she and her dad showed me.' Nick said and returned to finishing his sandwich. Pyrrha's eyes widened and when Yang returned with her salad, the redhead grabbed her wrist all of a sudden.

'Is Jaune with her? Or Nora? Or Ren?' She asked with clear excitement in her voice. Yang seemed confused.

'I…I think so…maybe?' She just responded awkwardly and looked at Nick with wide eyes.

At that moment the captain of the ship walked into the buffet.

'We're approaching Anima. We should be docking the port in about 30 minutes. Please pick up your luggage and if you brought a vehicle, make sure to check its properties before we dock. Thank you for listening.'

'Damn, I just realized we only have Bumblebee…it won't fit all 3 of us.' Yang said and started playing with a lock of her hair.

Nick finished his sandwich and got up from his seat.

'Then we'll have to send it back. The village we'll enter after we leave the harbor has horse carriages, we should be fine using them. We'll send your motorcycle back to Patch.' Nick said.

'But how?'

Nick gave the blonde girl a wink and walked up towards the captain of the ship. After a couple of whispers and an ominous stare from Nick the captain nodded and left. Van Thorne returned to where Pyrrha and Yang were sitting and smiled.

'It's settled. Let's prepare, girls. We have quite a journey ahead of us.'

And thus, when Nick and the two girls got off the ferry on foot (and Yang made a quick call to Taiyang on her scroll regarding the motorcycle), they landed in the unknown village that a couple days ago was harassed by a possessive Grimm, the Geist. It was also the place where a certain different team was formed while fighting said Geist…

'I should get a weapon.' Pyrrha said as the trio reached the town. Yang just looked at her with wide eyes.

'You mean you don't have Miló and Akoúo̱? But how?' She said while Nick was walking up to a notice board in the center.

'They broke. I only managed to escape because my nemesis didn't hear me sneak out.' Pyrrha said and shook her arms.

'Well…if we earn some cash in here, we should be able to whip you up a replica, here.' Nick said and waved his hand at Pyrrha and Yang to come closer.

'A blacksmith? Rautar Lempo? I'm not sure if a village guy would be able to replicate it…' Pyrrha said with anxiety.

'We won't know unless we check. It's right over there.' Nick said and pointed his finger at the building really close.

The blacksmith wasn't very hard to locate. He was leaning against his shop's window, watching the rural skyline with a huge smile and was a faunus as everyone could tell by a pair of horns coming out of his forehead. When Pyrrha approached him, he immediately introduced himself as Rautar and invited all 3 inside.

'What can I do for you, ladies?' He asked, making Nick chuckle a little.

'We were wondering if you could make a specific weapon for our disarmed friend over here.' Yang said and smirked looking at Pyrrha.

'Well, do you have any blueprint? Or at least an idea?'

'It might sound a little absurd but…it's a gold and red spear that can transform into a gun or a short sword…oh and a razor-sharp shield…'

Rautar's eyes were wide in shock but he coughed a few times and awkwardly looked to his right.

'I…I think I could manage that…but it's gonna cost you a bit…'

'Well, we were going to ask for a paid job around here anyway as we need money for transport as well.' Yang intruded.

'Talk to the mayor, he should have some kind of task you could do to earn your needed paycheck. I'll book the nearest term for you to acquire that weapon…that would be tomorrow!' Rautar said and gave Pyrrha a warm smile that lifted up his dark moustache and beard.

After that Nick, Yang and Pyrrha left the blacksmith's shop and started searching for the village mayor. That man was also not hard to locate as his red robe was standing out from the crowd. As they approached him, he bowed in an awkward manner. For Nick, who knew all too well what such modesty leads to, it was even more awkward.

'We welcome you with open arms in our humble village.' The mayor said as he rose up.

'We were hoping to inquire about some sort of paid job…we really need to move deeper into the continent, to city of Mistral.' Said Yang.

'I'm afraid there might be a problem with that. We've had a problem with a Geist not too long ago but it has been dealt with…' The mayor responded, clearly sad that he couldn't be of better help.

'By whom?' Pyrrha asked, excitement building up in her.

'We had four visitors who dealt with it. They seemed to be a team, the little one among them seemed to be particularly proud of that.'

'Did she wear a red cape and had silver eyes?' Yang immediately asked, almost interrupting the mayor.

In the meantime Nick was looking around until his eyes landed on what seemed to be like a carriage. He was about to approach it while the girls talked to the mayor but then he noticed that it had a very familiar crest on its upper covers. The horses were resting, busy chewing on the forage from sacks attached to their mouths. The crest was a circle of what seemed to be some sort of grain painted gold with a green pinecone in the center. The entire symbol was surrounded with white lines. Nick suddenly realized what that symbol meant and quickly dove his hand into his coat's pocket and put on his sunglasses. Pyrrha noticed how anxious he looked as he was putting them on. Yang, in the meantime, finished talking to the mayor. She seemed both happy and bummed out.

'Alright, there's good news and bad news…why did you put your shades on, Nick?' The blonde girl asked.

'Well, uhm…it's a bit too sunny today for me. I'm rather sensitive to sunlight.' Nick responded awkwardly with a barely made excuse. After a tense stare from Yang, she returned her eyes to Pyrrha.

'Anyway, the good news is that Ruby, Jaune, Ren and Nora were here not so long ago so there's a chance we could catch them. They killed a Geist and moved on towards Shion on foot. But from what the mayor said, there have been reports of fires coming from its direction so…if we do acquire some sort of transport we should stick to it until we reach Higanbana at least…'

'And the bad news?' Nick asked.

'What, apart from Shion being destroyed by unknown forces? Well, we can't get a job now because of that Grimm being dead, for one thing.' Yang responded with clear sarcasm in her voice.

'That problem can be easily solved.' Suddenly a voice said near where the trio was standing. They made a sharp turn and saw an adult looking man with short brown hair and a stubble. Despite his face and hair being a mess, he was dressed in rather fancy clothes and didn't fit into the general common folk of the village. He was smirking, giving away a rather shady vibe. Unfortunately, only Nick felt that coming from him, but he didn't say anything.

'Excuse me, do we know you?' Yang asked with clear suspicion and confusion in her voice.

'No, I don't think so. But I happened to hear you're looking for a paid job and some transport…I think we can fix that problem for you.' The man responded.

'We?' Pyrrha asked and the man in return pointed his finger at the exact same horse carriage Nick was looking at earlier, with the characteristic crest.

'HB&D, although you seem too young to be well affiliated with our products yet. And believe me, right now we're in no shape to sell you anything. Instead, we'd like to give you an offer.' He responded.

'What offer?' Yang asked.

'200 Liens for each of you if you retrieve a package for us…it was lost in the nearby forest when our carriage was escaping from bandits.'

'Bandits…' Yang repeated that one word quietly to herself and smirked.

'So there's potential for Grimm…if the fight took longer than 15 minutes and you were near the place where the Geist was killed you basically left the Grimm a trail of breadcrumbs.' Pyrrha said, sounding surprisingly professional…like a Hexgirl almost.

'If you lost a package there, why are you sending us if you were attacked by bandits and attracted the Grimm? It could already be lost.' Nick asked, trying to make sure the shady looking man isn't trying to send them to their deaths.

'The bandits didn't steal anyone's wallet or our cash register. If there were no signs of robbery then there's only one other thing they could've been after. They just wanted to kill us…for some reason.'

"There's no doubt then…it was definitely them…" Yang thought to herself and bit her lower lip.

'Then we'll go look for your package, just show it to us on the map.' Pyrrha said and approached the shady man closer, who was now unwrapping a map he took out of the pocket of his jacket.

Nick didn't like the idea of helping the people from that carriage. But he was more concerned about Yang, who seemed anxious after the exchange with the carriage member.

'How are you holding up with your arm?' Nick asked to get the girl out of what she was overthinking.

'Huh? Oh, it's fine, I just…sometimes feel more heat in it than in my left arm.' She said.

'It'll pass, give it a few more days. Are you sure you're alright?'

'Nick, I don't know if sending away my bike was a good idea. Something doesn't seem right about these people…'

'I don't like it either, but we don't have a choice. Once we reach Higanbana, then we can decide on a different way of transportation. Who knows, maybe we'll even end up hijacking an airship.' Nick said and gave an awkward grin. Yang let out a cute chuckle, seemingly forgetting the things that made her anxious before.

Shortly after their short talk, Pyrrha returned with a look that suggested she's more than ready to fulfill the task at hand. After that Nick nodded towards the shady guy, still not taking off his sunglasses, and walked away with the two girls towards the forest's entrance. Once they were surrounded by trees from every direction, he slowly took them off and put them back in his pocket.

The trio walked through the forest rather confidently, although from time to time Nick or Yang had to check up on Pyrrha considering she was defenseless. Eventually they came out onto a meadow and could see the sun shining above them. It was then that Nick took out his two handguns and Yang's bracelets extended into the gauntlets she used before. Pyrrha, on the other hand, only clenched her fists and kept her back close to Yang's.

'Alright, you said this was the place?' Nick said without turning back from the direction he was facing.

'That's what the guy from the carriage said.' Pyrrha confirmed with a nod.

'Alright, we'll split up a bit here. Nick, you rush to the hole under the roots of that tree over there, Pyrrha said the package was hidden there from the bandits. I'll cover you, while Pyrrha watches my back.' Yang said and readied her weapons.

Nick nodded and switched his handguns into one of his swords, swung it a couple of times absolutely mesmerizing Pyrrha, corrected the hat on his head and started to run.

The moment he was off, a terrifying howl went through the entire forest, scaring a flock of birds off the nearby trees. Nick smiled to himself as it was the one situation where he was almost overflowing with confidence. If there was Grimm involved in standing in his way, he would always trigger his inner slaying devil, turning into someone he's not in any other situation.

He recognized that howl, it was a pack of Beowolves, quite possibly with an Alpha leading them. Yang and Pyrrha confirmed his suspicions when he heard a loud punching sound followed up by a shotgun blast and a painful yelp.

'Nick, look out! There's 4 of these furbags coming from behind your targeted tree!' Yang yelled as she covered Pyrrha from one of the Beowolves with an uppercut.

'The hat's not obstructing my eyesight, thank you very much!' Nick said, turned back for a second and tipped his hat at the girls while running backwards. The shit eating grin on his face was genuine this time.

When one of the Beowolves lunged at him, Nick just did a somersault and landed behind it. It was in that moment that he noticed two more monsters blocking his way into the big root of the tree sticking out on the ground.

'Well, well…somebody hasn't been getting their daily dose of fresh air…and baths…' He said, taunting the 3 lycanthropic monsters surrounding him.

One of the Beowolves snarled and lunged at Nick again, trying to grab him with its teeth. But he dodged and when the Grimm turned around, the Hexman was right behind its tail.

'Come on, what's the rush? At least buy me dinner first.' Nick taunted the monster again and corrected the coat on his shoulders.

After that he went into a fighting stance and jumped at the Beowolf with his sword high above his head. He plunged it into the Grimm's back and it let out a yelp of pain.

'I know, buddy. I'm not very subtle either. I already stuck it in you.' Nick said as he was pulling the sword out of the Grimm's spine with a stupid grin. Hearing that kind of joke, even Yang rolled her eyes and groaned as she was sending yet another smaller Beowolf into the trees.

After that Nick quickly got rid of the other two Beowolves, putting two bullets in one's head and then slicing through the last one. It seemed nothing else was in his way, so he rushed towards the tree and lunged into the hole underneath its roots. He was in a peculiar and vulnerable position as his lower body didn't fit into the hole and he had to leave it up on the ground while his upper body was looking around, digging through soil looking for a package. Pyrrha chuckled upon seeing that but Yang instead rushed towards where he was exposing his butt to other Beowolves. When she reached him, he seemed to ready himself to pull out of the hole.

'Hah! I think I found it!' Nick yelled and was about to get himself out, when suddenly he felt a strong pull on his pants and coat and before he knew it he was lying on the ground after Yang grabbed him and threw out of the hole.

'What were you thinking, dropping your guard like that?!' She yelled at him as he was blowing small portions of soil off his hair. He only looked awkwardly at her waving a small package in his hand.

'I got it. It has their crest on it.' He said with an innocent sounding voice.

'Uhhhh…guys? I don't wanna alarm you but…' Pyrrha suddenly yelled at them from a distance. When Nick and Yang looked in her direction, she was sitting on a tree branch while one big Beowolf was clawing the very tree. Its characteristic external ribcage and spikes growing out of its shoulders alarmed the two that this was the Alpha that led the pack. No other Grimm was in sight so Yang assumed he was the last one.

'Jackpot!' Nick said all of a sudden with a different tone, put the package in an internal pocket in his coat and readied his two pistols.

Upon seeing his eagerness, Yang forgot what she was mad about and merely grinned as she readied her gauntlets.

The two rushed forth at the monster and with insults from Nick they got it riled up. It charged, trying to get a bite of Yang but she only responded by shooting the ground and jumping over him. Nick at that time switched his guns to one of the swords and lunged forth, aiming for the Beowolf's head. But the monster managed to dodge his blow and standing on two legs started thrusting its clawed hands at Van Thorne. With impressive speed and footwork, Nick was waving his sword to deflect the claws, often causing sparks to fly off the blade. As the Beowolf was getting more and more ferocious, Yang decided to try and distract it and threw a pebble at its head. The monster snarled, but before it managed to turn around, Nick sliced its shoulder and smirked. That's when he got a crazy idea…

'Pyrrha, throw me one of the tree branches!' He yelled.

'Are you insane?!' Pyrrha yelled back with clear irritation.

'Nick what are you planning?' Yang asked, a little worried.

'Just get ready to throw the angriest punch ever! Imagine this branch is my ass sticking out from that hole over there!'

'EXCUSE ME?!' Yang yelled with the worst kind of blush in existence. Pyrrha also blushed, but because she was containing laughter.

Eventually, after dodging more claws and jaws attacks from the Alpha Beowolf, Pyrrha threw the tree branch towards Nick. That was a cue for him. He jumped, kicked the Alpha in the nose and used the momentum to rise higher up in the air and when he was close to the tree branch he kicked it again…towards Yang.

'Aim for him with the punch!' He only managed to yell from above…and that's when Yang caught up with his insane plan.

When the branch was near her, she took a swing and gave it a powerful haymaker that sent it flying right at the Beowolf. When it was about to sink its teeth in Nick, he suddenly noticed a wooden spike sticking out of the monster's mouth. Pyrrha and even Yang cringed upon realizing how painfully impaled the Grimm got. Nick, on the other hand, was still grinning like a shithead as he was landing on the ground. After that he ran up towards Yang.

'Oh, shit! I was gonna tell you to aim for the ribcage, but…damn, you shot it right through his bu-'

'Don't…finish that thought!' Yang hissed at Nick and awkwardly put her finger on his lips with her eyes closed and a crimson blush still on her face.

Unfortunately the monster was still twitching, meaning it wouldn't dissolve into smoke. Pyrrha in the meantime got off the tree and noticed how awkward everything looked without context.

The Beowolf attempted to howl one last time and to that Nick reacted with drawing his gun and mercy shooting it right in the back of the head. After that it evaporated and the trio was now standing in an empty meadow.

'Well…maybe we could go back now?' Pyrrha asked.

'Yeah I agr-ow! What was that for?' Nick whined all of a sudden when Yang slightly punched his shoulder.

'That's for distracting me and Pyrrha from the fight!' She said, hardly containing a blush.

'Yang, I think he just got too…enthusiastic. I'm sure he's sorry, right Nick?' Pyrrha said with an awkward grin and her hand on the back of her head.

'W-well, when I get into potential fights I tend to say some stuff I normally wouldn't say…but it was never anything too offensive!' Nick tried to excuse himself, but Pyrrha bumped his shoulder as well for that.

After a couple of intense stares and Nick not knowing exactly what the hell is going on, Yang and Pyrrha snickered and let out loud laughs while Van Thorne could only scratch his head and be confused like he usually is.

The trio returned with a sense of little triumph to the village. While walking through the forest, they started discussing the package they were carrying.

'So? Are we unwrapping it?' Yang asked with curiosity when she caught Nick staring blankly at the crest on the package.

'No! I mean…they'll notice we were snooping…and there must be a reason it has HB&D's official crest on it…' Nick panicked for a second.

'Still, I wouldn't do our part of the deal too quickly…they really seem shady, despite acting legitimate…' Pyrrha said.

'Let's tell them we'll give it to them once they transport us to Higanbana! If it's so important to them they were willing to sacrifice us to get it, they won't have a choice!' Yang said.

'I don't know about this…what if they'll dispose of us once we get out of the village?'

'I managed to have a quick look inside. There's 4 of them in total. The driver, two guys with rifles and the guy we talked to. I say with your dual handguns we have even chances.' Pyrrha said as they were about to reenter the village.

'But you're still unarmed!' Nick loudly whispered as he noticed the shady man approaching the trio again. He quickly took out his sunglasses and put them back on.

'Ah, you're back! You've found the package, I presume?' The man from the carriage said without waiting for them to say hello.

'Cash first.' Yang just said and crossed her arms, standing in front of Nick and Pyrrha.

'Why, of course! I'm not backing out on my part of the deal, here!' The shady man enthusiastically said and reached into his wallet he dug out of his jacket. He forked out what appeared to be 6 Lien bills. Yang walked up and took them from his hand, thinking she's about to look at a pure scam…but instead her eyes widened.

'Well…it's a surprise, but it's the exact amount!' Yang said and handed four of these bills equally to Nick and Pyrrha.

'Those are the blue 100 Lien bills…I thought they don't exist in common circulation.' Pyrrha said.

'Well…we're certainly not common.' The man from the carriage said and linked his hands together with a smile.

'We also have a favor to ask…' Yang turned back at the stranger and was about to ask for transportation when suddenly they heard a loud voice calling them in the distance.

'Miss Nikos! Miss Nikos, hello!' It was Rautar, the blacksmith.

'Y-yes? Is something wrong?' Pyrrha stepped away from Nick and Yang and approached the blacksmith.

'Oh no, no no no no…I was in fact looking for you. One of the clients canceled their order so I managed to finish your weapon quicker! It's waiting for you in my workshop.' The blacksmith said with enthusiasm and walked away. Pyrrha followed him and Nick decided to accompany her. Only Yang was left with the carriage.

'There she is! Finest metal I had from previous arrangements, the gold and red combination is a wonder for the eyes…reminds me of one work that was…oddly similar to yours…' The blacksmith sounded kinda ominous.

'What do you mean?' Pyrrha asked.

'Well you heard about the Geist, right? The team of huntsmen that killed it had a guy among them who asked me for a new armor and weapon modifications…he brought me materials so I didn't charge him nothing. Used the remaining ones I had and a few of my own to make these…' The blacksmith responded and his moustache lifted up again.

'I know this will sound dumb, but…did he wear a hoodie with a bunny underneath that armor?' Pyrrha asked as she was slightly chuckling.

'Well…yes, that's what he had. Do you by any chance know him? Blonde hair, blue eyes?'

Pyrrha didn't respond, she just nodded and looked down on the ground, seemingly deep in thoughts. Nick decided to break the silence.

'So, how much is it for the weapons?' The Hexman asked.

'300, considering you're friends to these Huntsmen.' The blacksmith responded. Suddenly Nick stopped wondering what would the cost be if Pyrrha didn't mention the bunny hoodie.

'But…I only have…' Nikos mumbled.

'Deal.' Nick said and put his two 100 Lien bills on the blacksmith's counter. Pyrrha blushed upon looking at him but he just winked at her and she took out one of her bills with a shaky hand. The blacksmith took the Liens, stared at the two in front of him for a second and then nodded. After that Pyrrha took her brand new, yet old weapons to her hands. She seemed…satisfied, like she managed to put the last piece of a puzzle and complete it. But immediately after that she attached the shield and the folded spear onto her back and walked up closer to Nick.

'Thank you…' She awkwardly said and was about to stretch her arms as if she wanted to hug Nick but then Yang burst into the blacksmith's shop.

'He agreed. Finish the formalities and let's go, the carriage leaves today!' She said with excitement.

And so, after a bit of a ruckus with the Grimm and the village on Anima, the Hexman, the blonde firecracker and the mysterious redhead were now sitting at the back of the horse carriage. It wasn't very comfortable there and the space was limited considering the back was filled with cargo the carriage was transporting. Nick sat in the middle, while Yang and Pyrrha sat on his left and right. He really wanted to take a nap, considering how the bumps in the road were shaking his head back and forth, but that would mean either falling on Yang's or Pyrrha's shoulder…and that would paralyze Nick from awkwardness…

The man that struck a deal with the trio was sitting comfortably on one of the crates of the cargo, the mentioned by Nikos riflemen sat on the edge of the carriage's back, from time to time squeezing through the cargo and the passengers to get to the driver.

Yang was bored. After the adrenaline from fighting the Grimm wore off, she started feeling like she needs to find a way to pass the time. So she decided to take a peek into one of the crates…

'Curious, aren't we?' The carriage member asked.

'I was just…wondering what was inside that crate…' Yang mumbled, trying to excuse herself.

'Humulus. Lots and lots of humulus…either that or grains…' The man responded, trying to be as fair as possible.

'So you work for a company we're too young to know things about…and you're carrying crops in your cargo…who are you and what does HB&D stand for?' Pyrrha asked.

'Hopsnatch Breweries & Distilleries.' Nick cut into the talk and immediately looked down after that, still in his hat and sunglasses.

'Bingo!' The carriage member said cheerfully and snapped his fingers.

'So…what are we carrying for you in that package?' Yang asked after a moment of silence.

'Now now, that's a secret…for now. It'll stop being it once all 3 of you are adults…' The man said, leaned his arm against another crate and waved his index finger in the air. Of course he wasn't going to reveal what was in the package…he still was shady.

In the end, none of the trio fell asleep on the carriage. Soon they could smell like something was burning. Yang already knew what that meant. They were driving through Shion.

'By the Gods, what a tragedy…' The carriage driver mumbled. Nick, Yang and Pyrrha had too limited movement to stick their heads out and look at the destroyed village, but Nikos could see bloodstains on the road behind the carriage.

'They said it was bandits, no? By the looks of it, may have been the same ones that attacked us…' Said the shady man to one of the riflemen in the back.

'Hah! That's what you get for trying to force an excise on us!' One of the riflemen said and chuckled until the other one slapped him at the back of the head.

'Show some respect, you son of a bitch! You're lucky none of the higher-ups are with us or you'd already be on your way to the carpet!' The other rifleman hissed at the disrespectful one.

'Why you calling me that? We're both from the same mother!' The disrespectful rifleman just said with a really dumb voice for some reason. The other guard just groaned, rolled his eyes and looked away, focusing on the charred remains of Shion.

Eventually Nick didn't endure and let his head rest against the cover of the carriage. He was still in his sunglasses and hat so Yang and Pyrrha couldn't tell he was dozing off.

They reached Higanbana around the evening. When they were on their way out of Shion, it started raining and the raindrops hitting the covers woke Nick up. Out of everyone on the carriage, only the driver and the two riflemen were soaked. Fortunately, Higanbana wasn't far anymore.

The village the carriage stopped in was known for being a very safe one. It had a tavern and, as it turned out, free rooms. Nick, Yang, Pyrrha and the carriage members decided to stay for the night in 2 different rooms.

'Make yourselves at home. I'll be downstairs if you need anything…' The Higanbana waitress said as she walked the trio into their room for the night. Thankfully, it had three beds, none of them double. Nick sighed in relief, but also because he was glad to be off the rain. When he, Yang and Pyrrha got off the carriage he attempted to use his coat as a provisional umbrella but in the end his head was sticking out and his hair got wet.

'Oh Gods…finally, I can lay down!' Yang said as she crashed onto one of the beds looking up.

'The carriage driver said we'll be leaving tomorrow at noon. It's almost 10 PM, we should get as much sleep as we can.' Pyrrha said as she was correcting the pillow on her bed.

'Hopefully I'll be dry before that time…' Nick said with a tired voice as he was hanging his coat on the coat hanger near a wall of a fireplace that was directly below them. After taking off his boots, Van Thorne sat on his bed for that night and was about to make himself comfortable, when he heard Yang calling him.

'Wait! I think I know how we can make that time pass quicker!' She said and grinned.

'Yang, please…' Nick was really tired after being awaken in the carriage by the rain.

'Pyrrha, do you have more hairbands?' Yang started to sound…mischievous.

It was at that moment that Nick realized what the blondie and the redhead were planning as they were approaching him with wide grins on their faces.

'Oh no…you're not thinking what I'm thinking, right?' He awkwardly asked as he was feeling himself getting smaller and smaller in their eyes.

'…I look stupid!' Nick said with irritation when he looked into his mirror and saw his hair tied into two pigtails by Yang and Pyrrha.

'No no, it's a psychological weapon. When the Grimm see you in this hair, they'll think you're cute and maybe they'll play with you instead of turning you into cat food!' Yang said through her uncontrollable laughter.

'Yang, please stop stressing him out this much…' Pyrrha felt pity for Nick, but also satisfaction.

'Alright, alright…we'll make him a big braid then.' Yang said with enthusiasm building up.

'Oh come on, you said this was the last one!' Nick was getting annoyed because he really wanted to sleep yet the girls decided to play hairdressers.

'Ah ah ah, none of the sass!' Yang mischievously said and poked his nose.

'Yes, moooom…' Nick mockingly responded and gave up…

After about an hour more of the "torture" that was trying to change Nick's hairstyle, everyone went to sleep. Pyrrha slept rather innocently, sleeping with one of her cheeks on the pillow with her covers close to her chin. Nick was resting his head face down on the pillow, the cover barely reaching his elbows (and he was also snoring a little). Yang, on the other hand…well…she slept on the mattress, the cover barely touching her feet and the pillow supporting only her hair, which was turning into a storm of golden locks. In that state they and the entire Higanbana went to sleep, safe from the fate that Shion and a few other settlements suffered…


	7. Arrival At Haven

Nick woke up the earliest in the room at Higanbana. He was still feeling rather irritated because of what the girls did with his hair the previous night. But at least he had a good sleep after all that excitement from fighting the Grimm. That's when he noticed the pose Yang was sleeping in and frowned.

Pyrrha woke up shortly after Nick. But unlike him, she didn't stay in bed, instead throwing herself out from underneath her covers. Nick looked away, afraid she may have slept in her lingerie like Yang. But to his shock he was in her full outfit, didn't even take off her boots.

'Morning.' She said with a smile.

'Just gimme a second.' Nick said and raised his finger. After a few stretches of hands and legs he got himself out of the bed and started to put his boots back on. In the meantime, Pyrrha was making her bed and when Van Thorne went to get his coat, she made his bed as well.

'Could you wake Yang up?' Pyrrha said from an awkward position, bent over and trying to fit the bedsheet into one of the corners.

'Uhhhhh…yeah, sure.' Nick said and blushed, thinking it'll only get worse when Yang wakes up.

The Hexman slowly approached the sleeping blonde, sat on the edge of her bed and was about to poke her shoulder…

When suddenly she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Nick's huge green eyes seemingly staring deep into her soul.

'Kyah! Get away from me!' Yang didn't recognize Nick at first so she was completely startled, flailing her arms and throwing the covers at him. Nick got startled as well and while trying to get the cover off his head he fell off the edge of Yang's bed and landed on the wooden floor.

'Ow! The hell was that supposed to be?!' Nick yelled when he finally got the cover off his head. Yang blushed upon realizing that it wasn't a scary monster that she saw.

'Um…It's just that…I'm just in underwear.' She said, trying to cover her bra, only making it worse…and more awkward.

'Well you've almost seen me naked and I haven't reacted nearly as much as you!' Nick said. Pyrrha just looked awkwardly at the two.

'No, you screeched louder.' Yang responded in a snarky way.

'Hey, I'm sure it's not as bad as it looks…' Pyrrha said from a distance.

'Pyrrha, shush!' Yang and Nick both said at the same time.

It took the trio about 15 more minutes of arguing through laughter and blushes to start getting ready to head out. Outside, the HB&D employees were checking out the cargo and feeding the horses. The shady man who gave them the money was also there and held in his hand what appeared to be snacks.

'Ah, you're awake! Ready to head out? We got you some quick meal for the road.' He said sounding like he has a frog in his throat.

Nick and Yang just nodded and got on the carriage. Pyrrha followed in shortly, looking one last time at the road behind them.

'Alright, so what's next on our map?' One of the riflemen asked, sitting next to the driver of the carriage.

'Oniyuri…and then the ruins of Kuroyuri. I think it's best you stay in front this time and Dudley watches our backs.' The driver responded.

"Dudley…so that's the name of the rifleman that scolded the other in Shion…" Nick thought to himself, considering it a progress since they got on the carriage without knowing any names of HB&D's employees.

About half an hour later, Nick and the rest of the crew were on their way to Oniyuri. From what Nick heard before meeting Glynda in Beacon, that and the neighboring village were one of the most dangerous spots on Anima. There was a clear threat coming from the Grimm, bandits or just plain psychopaths there. Nick looked at Yang as he felt the carriage making its first turn.

'Watch yourselves for the rest of the trip. Once we reach Mistral City we'll be fine, but that doesn't mean the area around it is nearly as safe. We lost many good people and shipments in this area…having the three of you aboard increases our chances, even if just slightly.' Said the shady man.

'Dee, where did you…oh.' The rifleman the driver referred to as Dudley just noticed his partner is gone. Pyrrha then rose up from where she sat and approached him.

'Watch your step, lady.' Dudley said in a slightly grumpy voice.

Pyrrha didn't respond to him, instead she got Miló out and transformed it into her rifle. After that she took a seat at the edge of the carriage and pointed it towards the distance. Dudley just looked at the shady man and shrugged.

'The three of you are huntsmen?' Shady man asked Yang, realizing who he's transporting.

'In training, but yes.' The blonde responded and awkwardly smiled. Nick didn't utter a word from under his hat and sunglasses, trying desperately to hide his eyes from HB&D's employees.

'Thank goodness you said in training. We're not exactly on good terms with full-fledged ones…except for ones we know already.'

'Oniyuri ahead! But…you all should look at this…' Dee yelled from where he and the carriage driver were sitting.

Nick, Yang and the shady man stuck their heads out front from the carriage to see what all the ruckus was about.

Oniyuri, the abandoned village at the heart of Grimm country, was filled with traces of combat. That wasn't right. Some unfinished structures and scaffoldings were lying on the ground and the cobblestone road had dents in a few places. But the most suspicious thing was awaiting them a little later.

It was Dudley who noticed it at first. The carriage stopped but the shady man ordered everyone to stay on board and went ahead alone. He took out a vial from his jacket, confusing Nick and Yang as to where did he get it and held it up near the ground. He was ducking like that for a few minutes until he came back on the carriage and told the driver to go.

'We have to get out of here as fast as possible. Something's been happening in Oniyuri not too long ago, I don't like it.' Said Pyrrha as the shady man was blankly staring at the vial he held in his hand. After looking closer Yang noticed the small glass container had dark purple liquid in it.

'What's that?' She asked.

'Not entirely sure, but judging by the consistency and tiny streams of smoke, it's some kind of poison, maybe venom. Just makes me want to leave this place, report it to the boss and find an alternate route.'

As the shady man was talking to Yang, Nick was looking back at the abandoned village they were living behind while the trail ahead led to Kuroyuri. He looked up at the huge unfinished tower and its scaffolding one last time…

And that's when he first noticed it. Someone or something was squatting on the top of the scaffolding and was perfectly still. However, eventually that something must have noticed Nick somehow because then the scaffolding came crushing down, thankfully the carriage was long gone from Oniyuri when that happened. But nevertheless it seemed suspicious to Nick while the rest tried to dismiss that as a random occurrence.

As the group was driving through the forest right behind Oniyuri and halfway to Kuroyuri, some strange noise filled the air. It seemed to come out of the sky, so the driver and Dee looked up with dread.

'Lancers. We should speed up to get out of their sight quickly. They're flying towards Lake Matsu, it's the other way.' Dee said and nodded to reassure the others that there's nothing to worry about.

'Alright, but be careful. Just because the Lancers are flying the other way doesn't mean they won't sniff us out.' The shady man said.

'You got that right…huh?' The driver said suddenly.

'What is it?'

'Chief, I don't want to alarm you, but…somebody cut the road sign in half.'

'Kuroyuri is to the left, you should remember already. Or maybe you'd like to deal with customs office in Kuchinashi?'

'But…ugh, fine!' The driver groaned and cursed his boss quietly.

'It can't be her…can't be her…or else we'd have it real bad…' The caravan leader mumbled to himself.

Suddenly something violently hit the cover of the carriage as it turned left at the crossroads. All Nick and Yang could see was a hole in the cover and a spike on a strange cord sticking out.

'It's the Lancers! They sniffed us out! Dee, tell that old hippie to step on it!' The caravan leader yelled at the driver and his escort.

'It's not the Lancers…it's something worse…' Nick said so that only Yang hears him.

'Chief, something's approaching us from the ground as well! They're in our line of fire and don't seem friendly!'

'Well then what the FUCK are you waiting for?!' The shady man yelled.

'Pyrrha, Dudley, you two keep them as far from the caravan as possible! Yang, you stay with the caravan leader, protect the package we got. Dee, lift me up! I have to get on the caravan's roof.'

'You?! But what fo…Oh Gods, no!' Dee yelled back and covered himself with his weapon as the spike on a cord shot again. Once it left the driver's escort alone, Nick lunged at him and jumped off his weapon right on the covers of the carriage. Considering he was very lightweight, nobody felt his feet above them.

'What the hell is going on? Dudley, why did you not hit these things yet?!' The caravan leader yelled.

'It's moving too fast!' Pyrrha responded instead of the rifleman.

'What are you two even shooting at? What attacked us?' Yang said and was about to approach the back escort but the shady man stopped her and took out what appeared to be a handgun.

'Sorry, blondie…can't take no risks. Hand over the package…now!' He said as he pointed the gun at Yang's forehead.

'I knew you people can't be trusted…Go on, take it if you can!' Yang responded with a devious smirk and held the precious package as if she wanted to throw it.

But then the same exact spike on a cord pierced the carriage's cover and went right through the caravan leader's head, blood coming out of his eyes and mouth, killing him instantly. After that, Yang could hear Nick's grunts as he was swinging his sword and an unknown hiss of a monster.

'Oh shit, the gate is blocked!' The driver yelled but he failed to calm down the panicked horses. The carriage started shaking violently until it turned and fell on its right side. The impact shook the crates but didn't spill the cargo. Yang kept the package the shady man was ready to kill her for. The driver was unconscious and Nick was nowhere to be found in the immediate area. Dee and Dudley were pulling the wounded driver from under the broken vehicle and Pyrrha managed to tear open the part of the carriage cover that she got stuck under. The horses ran away in random directions and Yang was helping Pyrrha out of the ruin.

'What the hell is happening?!' Dudley yelled, clearly in panic.

'Tone it down, damn it! Ow…' A weaker voice could've been heard from a little further behind the carriage.

Nick was getting up in pain from the ground. His hat got a few dents and his sunglasses were broken. He seemed roughed up. For Pyrrha, that meant only one thing. Whatever attacked them must've been strong if Nick treated it seriously.

The Hexman started walking towards Yang and Pyrrha with a slight limp. It didn't seem like his leg was broken, but there was a hole in his pants near his knee, so the unknown monster must've struck him there. But most importantly he had a big bruise on one of his cheeks. Yet despite all of it, Van Thorne was attempting to smile.

'Listen, everyone! We're so close to safety we can't just give up. Dee, Dudley, do you guys have any contact with your supervisors? Good, then call them to our location. But most importantly, don't panic. We have to stay calm and out of dense areas. We'll hide at Kuroyuri's market. It's an open space, so there will be no strategic positions for it to attack.'

'What "it"? I'm tired of secrets, Nick! Stop hiding things from us!' Yang started to snap.

'Listen, Yang. This is no place for…'

'No, you're not dismissing me like that asshole did! You must tell us what we're up against…or you're going there on your own!' Yang completely lost her composure. Her eyes were now looking at the Hexman in red.

'But…but…your sister…' Nick was getting smaller in her eyes.

'I can find Ruby with or without your help! I am not some child in need of rescuing, I'm not just a crippled, useless blondie…and I'm certainly not someone who needs favors from an overgrown edgelord like you!'

Nick felt his heart sting at that moment. He kneeled from the intimidation posed by Yang, his eyes slowly filling up with tears. He didn't want to cry, but…he never got hurt by anyone's words so deep. If Yang really meant what she was saying…then was all that journey for nothing? Was him being rescued from that motorcycle crash just a coincidence? Was finding Pyrrha on that ship under attack by that fellow just dumb luck? Were the laughs he and her shared while fighting the Beowolves and in Higanbana just a one-time occasion, never to happen again?

Pyrrha got Nick out of overthinking shortly after he asked himself these questions.

'We have to go. Yang ran ahead to Kuroyuri…' She said, clearly upset about the whole situation.

As Nick was following the redhead slowly, she constantly tried to convince him that what the blondie said wasn't genuine, that it was just in anger. But Nick, instead of listening, kept looking for his own flaws.

Eventually the two got to what was once the market. Nick shook off the thoughts upon hearing the hiss of the Grimm that attacked them…

It was a "Kasha", a feline humanoid Grimm with the ability to create clones out of someone's panic. The reason why Pyrrha and Dudley couldn't land a shot on it wasn't just because it's extremely fast, but also because Kasha's clones cannot be harmed. The only way to kill this Grimm is to destroy the original that started making the clone army. It's a very rare species of Grimm and it only appears as a scavenger in the area where a bigger Grimm recently died, such as a Sea Feilong or a Lancer Queen. Unfortunately for our heroes, the amounts of panic from carriage members allowed the Kasha to create enough clones to surround them.

And so, when the felines on two legs with dark glowing eyes emerged and formed a circle around Nick and Pyrrha, it didn't seem like they would have any chance. A couple of days earlier, Kuroyuri's ruins were haunted by a giant Grimm that looked like a horseback rider, the Nuckelavee. Upon being killed by team RNJR, a huge cloud of black smoke attracted the Kasha from Lake Matsu. That was the monster they were now facing, and Yang was nowhere to be seen…

'We need to somehow distract them all. Any suggestions?' Pyrrha asked.

'Atlesian military used flashbangs on these Grimm to determine which one isn't the clone. Maybe try that? Loud, blinding flashes?' Nick asked

'Yeah great idea…but we're kind of in the middle of a village, not a military compound. I'm sorry, but keep thinking!'

It was at this moment that a loud, blinding flash did come. A group of Kasha clones ignored it but didn't catch a yellow and brown shape that dashed through the panic. It was Yang. Without a word she jumped close to Pyrrha and covered her back. Nick wasn't touching neither of the girls, but he was close enough.

'Yang! We thought you made a run for it!' Pyrrha said.

'Mhm…' Xiao Long just murmured without uttering a word.

'Keep up the explosions, we have to see which of these Grimm reacts to light and noise!' Pyrrha added. In response, Yang just nodded and started firing projectiles from Ember Celica right at the feet of the Kasha and while she was turning with Pyrrha and Nick following her moves, the two that weren't shooting were scouting in search for a non-clone of Kasha. Unfortunately, the explosions from Yang's gauntlets were also building up clouds of smoke and from it the claws of Kasha, which can be shot out like harpoons on a thin but durable cord, were shooting right at the Hexman and the redhead. But eventually, at the corner of the eye, Nick noticed the original of the clone army. It hissed loudly and folded its ears and lunged personally at Yang.

'Watch out!' Nick yelled and shielded the blondie with his sword from a paw attack. The original Kasha made a somersault and was now facing Van Thorne personally. Yang ran out of shells and needed to reload, but Pyrrha covered her from the clones shooting their claws with her shield. Meanwhile, Nick finally let go of his depressive thoughts and realized a very important thing…but he didn't have time to dwell on it. He lunged forth, seeing as the original Kasha is grabbing a hold of the huge red spike at the end of its tail. Kasha keeps it as its backup weapon, naturally it works similar to Deathstalker's stinger. But when these felines feel like someone poses a bigger challenge to them , they painlessly remove the spike from the tips of their tails and use it like a sword. Later, after they killed everyone, it grows back.

The Kasha lunged with its tail spike at Nick, trying to impale him on spot, but the Hexman managed to parry it. After that, the Grimm started circling around Nick, hissing and passing the spike from one hand to another. Once Nick made sure he's far enough from Yang and Pyrrha, he attacked the Kasha. They started to clash their weapons at an incredibly fast pace, often using dirty tricks such as kicks or jump attacks. But Nick was resilient…he fought that Kasha on the roof of the carriage and he was hell bent on destroying it right there, at Kuroyuri.

Eventually the Kasha proved too slow and it didn't manage to escape Nick's attack. He slashed the monster's hip. The Kasha hissed and let out an enraged meow and fell on the ground.

'Finally! I was slowly losing my footwork there.' The Hexman yelled as he was heavily breathing from exhaustion. The clouds of smoke that Yang made were still up, however…and it almost ruined that victory.

Nick didn't even notice when a claw of Kasha plunged itself into his shoulder. The Hexman was surprised, but was unable to process it all before falling on the ground from pain.

'Nick, no!' Yang yelled, finally uttering some words.

Behind him stood another Kasha, but when Pyrrha shot it a couple of times she realized it's another clone. When Yang ran up to Nick concerned, she noticed something peculiar. The Kasha that Nick managed to slice was still alive, but it was fatally wounded. It was letting out a strange gurgling noise, as if it was…laughing. Her eyes turned red immediately but this time not because she wasn't controlling her anger. This time, she was afraid that she might lose her companion.

With a loud scream Yang stomped on the Kasha's head and crushed it with her boot. The body of the Grimm turned into smoke and the clones disappeared along with the spike in Nick's shoulder. But the wound was still there. Yang kneeled in front of the Hexman.

'Please get up. Please, I didn't mean what I said. You're one of the best things that happened to me since I've lost my arm, my school, my partner, my sister. You may sometimes make stupid jokes or be unnecessarily grumpy, but…but…it's what gives me hope. Please…don't leave…' She was saying, this time through her tears.

But of course, Nick didn't hear a word she said as he was unconscious. When Pyrrha confirmed it, Yang calmed down a little bit and soon Dee, Dudley and the now conscious driver of the carriage joined them as a huge airship from Mistral City was landing near where they were. They transported the driver to the hospital in the city, Nick to the hospital at Haven and Dee and Dudley decided to say goodbye to Yang and Pyrrha and try to contact their boss at HB&D's headquarters.

At Haven, the evening was closing in. After a brief talk with headmaster Lionheart and his young secretary, Yang Xiao Long and Pyrrha Nikos were standing at the door to a dorm in Haven. Yang was about to raise her hand and knock on the door but then decided to stay a little longer and listen in through the thin walls.

'Alright, the first batch is just about done!' A male voice inside said.

'Awesome! Now we just need Qrow and we'll be all set!' A squeaky female voice said in response.

Yang bit her lower lip, because she recognized that voice as her sister's. She made it…they made it. They all made it.

Pyrrha urged her to hurry up with an intense stare and after taking a very deep breath Yang finally knocked on the door.

'Coming! Strange, I thought Lionheart and Tromberg are still working…' The voice of another girl could be heard as Yang and Pyrrha heard steps getting closer to the door.

'Nora…' Pyrrha said to herself and smiled, feeling she won't be able to contain herself.

When the door opened, a pair of turquoise eyes under short, but messy orange hair stared at Yang and Pyrrha in disbelief. That was Nora Valkyrie, the hyperactive N of team JNPR. She was wearing a white top underneath a blue bomber jacket, a pink skirt and knee-high pink socks sticking out of her white calf-length boots with pink laces. Usually the loudest one, upon seeing the two she just stared with her mouth wide open.

'P…P…P…P…' She was just stuttering that one letter.

'Nora, who is it? Let them in, it's already cold out there!' Another person said and started walking up close to her. It was a younger looking girl with silver eyes and black, neck-length, choppy hair that gradated to dark red at the tips. It was Ruby, Yang's sister.

When the blondie and the redhead walked in after Nora cleared way for them, Ruby just came out of a corner. The shock made her immediately drop a tray she had in her hands, with a teapot and two cups. After that, her eyes filled up with tears and she started wobbling as if she was about to fall on the ground.

'Y-Yang?' She only managed to say in her stutter. And when she turned her eyes and saw Pyrrha, the redhead immediately blushed and started scratching the back of her head with her hand.

'Ruby, I heard the tray dropping. Is everything okay?' Another two people appeared in the same room, this time guys. One was a blonde with fair skin and dark-blue eyes wearing a hoodie with a bunny and jeans, the other was a young man with long black hair tied into a ponytail that ended midway down his back with an additional magenta streak on his left side, with eyes matching that streak, wearing a sleeveless tailcoat with black and silver trimming. Their shock was just as big upon seeing Pyrrha as everyone else's.

'Hello again…' She quietly said with closed eyes, considering they were about to fill up entirely with tears of joy.

As that reunion was taking place in a dorm at Haven, Nick was being treated in the academy's hospital wing. He woke up during the night in a hospital bed, wearing nothing but his underwear. He looked around, not knowing where he is…and that's when the door to his left opened. The figure in it walked inside and switched the light on. After the initial blinding flash stopped, Van Thorne could get a better look at the unknown person.

It was a rather young woman wearing a black gothic blouse with white lace, a matching skirt and cuff boots. She had long, purple hair with two drill curls on each side of her face and matching eyes. She held what appeared to be a file in her hands. After switching on the light, she slowly sat down right in front of Nick's bed, put one leg over her other one and opened the file.

'Nicholas Van Thorne…' She said with a mischievous smirk on her face as she looked into her file.

'Where am I?' Nick asked, slightly worried.

'I'll be the one asking questions, if you don't mind.' The woman said in an oddly non-threatening manner.

After that she took out a pen and started writing something on a paper that must've been in her file. Nick could tell she's crossing some things out or writing.

'You're in Haven Academy of Mistral, Thorne boy. Your two friends transported you here and were let go to their dorm. Shame they didn't stay with you, delightful girls. But I couldn't hold them off too long because they were conscious. Now then, Thorne boy…what the hell have you been doing in Kuroyuri?'

'Thank Gods, we're in Haven…we made it.'

'You wanted to come here? I could understand your companions but you, Thorne boy? Why come to an academy when all your necessary education is already where it should be?'

'W-what?'

'Yes, I know who you are, Hexman. And I believe most of Mistral already knows who you are as well. I hope you'll appreciate the trouble I went through to cover up the sensation of you appearing among the Mistrali fleet and the news network…not every day you get to see one of the last members of Hexies appear at your doorstep.' The woman ranted.

'What the fuck do you want?'

'Fufufu…of course you would be a vulgar one. It's nothing to be afraid of, Thorne boy. All I want from you is a favor in exchange for letting you run free. You do me a favor, I do you a favor and we'll be just dandy.'

'What kind of favor?'

'I'll give you all the details when you're…heh…entirely standing up.' The woman said and gave Nick a suggestive look. Nick started to feel uncomfortable around her.

'Then why are you here now?' He asked.

'Out of simple courtesy. I just wanted to say hello and welcome you to Haven…month before the school year starts, but still.' She said and rose up from her seat. She started walking out of the room and switched off the light.

'Wait, who are you?' Nick asked trying to get to her.

The woman turned around in the doorframe, put her hand on her hip and posed slightly seductively.

'I'm Helga Tromberg. Second in command of Haven and headmaster Lionheart's secretary. I hope your wounds didn't damage your memory.'

After that she closed the door and Nick couldn't think of anything else to do but sleep.HB


	8. Introductions & Realizations

The next morning Nick was discharged from the hospital at Haven. The academy's more practical teachers managed to sew back the hole in his pants, but his hat and sunglasses were still in repair. After leaving the hospital, Van Thorne decided to take a walk through the academy's courtyard, still slightly limping from his fight with Kasha but he knew it was just painkillers leaving his organism.

Neither Pyrrha nor Yang visited him but he wasn't angry about that. He remembered that Yang was going to meet her sister in Haven and Pyrrha wanted to reunite with her team. Eventually Nick walked near a very distinct building, the Haven tower. He turned in its direction and started admiring it but as soon as he decided to walk away…

'Ow!'

He bumped into someone. Fortunately neither of them fell down on the ground and when Nick managed to concentrate, he saw the unlucky person that encountered him.

It was an adult man with graying black, spiky hair, dull red eyes and slight stubble along his jawline. When Van Thorne took a better look at him, he noticed he's wearing a tattered red cloak, a gray dress shirt with a long tail, black dress pants and matching dress shoes. Van Thorne was about to apologize but suddenly gagged because the man reeked of cheap liquor. He was about to ask if he was a homeless person, but noticed a folded sword strapped to his back.

'Fuckin' great, not even 15 minutes into the morning…' The unknown man grumbled to himself sarcastically, but Nick managed to decipher what he's saying.

'I'm sorry, didn't mean to bump into you.' Nick switched into panic mode hearing the man's raspy and quite cynical grumbles.

'No harm done, kid. Just be more cautious when you're looking the other way.' The man responded, surprisingly clearly. Nick thought to himself that maybe that man actually controlled his intoxication.

But as Nick and the stranger were about to go their separate ways, he heard as the unknown man stops.

'Kid, hold on a sec!' He said less casually than before and walked back to where Van Thorne was. Nick complied and turned to face him as well.

'Aren't you that weird kid that was hospitalized here yesterday?' He asked with a finger rudely pointed at Nick's nose and with a douchey smirk. Nick's eyes widened because he was now convinced that this drunk man in front of him was, in fact, an actual huntsman.

'Uhhhhh…yeah? I just got out, so no longer hospitalized, though.' He responded to the drunk man holding the air in his nose a little bit.

'That's good. Name's Qrow. Qrow Branwen. And I'm an uncle to one of your traveling companions.'

Nick shook the man's hand and also introduced himself to him. However, something about his look didn't seem right. And eventually, Nick remembered his talk with Yang's dad.

" _It was Qrow who found you in that shed…"_

These words echoed in Nick's head and the realization came to him. That drunk huntsman he just bumped into was a member of Taiyang Xiao Long's team, one of the people that almost left him for the dead…

But he shook off the urge to reveal that fact to the now officially met huntsman and let go of his hand. But instead of going his own way, Qrow now put his hand over Van Thorne's shoulder.

'Well then, Nicholas, come with me. You have a lot of explaining to do…speaking of which, are you legally allowed to drink?'

Nick swallowed saliva because Qrow's smell really worked on his imagination to get an impression of what said explaining will look like…

Thankfully, he was wrong. When Qrow dragged him into a Haven dorm he said everyone's staying in he went up to the fridge in the kitchen, opened it and took out two bottles with beer, passing one to Nick already uncapped. The Hexman knew just one beer wouldn't really waste him that much.

'So, let me ask first. How will you explain the fact that my niece has two arms now? I remember when she got transported home from Beacon and that right arm was completely gone up to the elbow.' He said taking a sip of the beer in his bottle.

'Well…'

'Does that have something to do with your messed up eyes?' The drunkard interrupted him.

'I'm a Hexman, it's natural for me to have them. It doesn't obstruct my vision.' Nick said, as if trying to excuse himself.

'A Hexman?! Please, kid. There's no such thing as Hexmen, they were just legends!' Qrow said and let out a very insincere laugh. Nick started to think that maybe Branwen was denying he was ever in Gwynbleidd.

At that moment the doors to the dorm opened and a group of people talking could be heard. Shortly after that near the kitchen where Nick and Qrow were standing they appeared, but Nick only recognized Yang out of all of them.

'Oh, uncle Qrow! I see you've found him before us.' The blonde with lilac eyes said and smiled.

'That's him?!' A squeaky voice next to her said. It belonged to Ruby, Yang's sister. Afterwards he only noticed a trail of rose petals and a shorter girl was right in front of him.

'Uhhhhh…hi?' Nick was utterly confused. Thankfully he managed to put the beer bottle away on the kitchen counter.

'Ooooooh…it's a real Hexman. Eyes and everything…although I thought at first Yang confused you with a girl.' Ruby's eyes were gleaming with excitement as she was deeply staring at Nick. Van Thorne on the other hand was utterly confused and didn't know if he should be flattered or offended.

'Ruby, please get off the poor guy. At least let him take a seat before you bombard him.' Another guy from the group said. It was the long-haired brunette guy, Lie Ren.

Afterwards, everyone took a seat at the nearby table. Everyone awkwardly looked at Nick. Yang, Qrow, Ruby, Ren and the blonde guy that introduced himself as Jaune as well as a hyperactive ginger Ren introduced as Nora now stared at Nick, seemingly thrilled to meet him in person…it was making him uncomfortable.

'So, what do your weapons look like?' Ruby asked the first question after the awkward silence.

'Well, I have two longswords and two handguns, all concealed in my coat.' Nick said and corrected his sleeve, which in response let out a few clicks.

'Oooooh, pretty sneaky. Me likey.' Ruby's eyes gleamed again.

'How did you end up with a busted shoulder? Yang didn't want to tell us.' Ren intruded and asked his own question.

'There was a Kasha in the ruins of Kuroyuri. We traveled with a group of…uhhhh…traders and it attacked us. Thankfully, they managed to send a signal to Mistral city.'

'Oh, they sent a signal, alright!' Qrow suddenly yelled with a loud laughter. 'They sent a CCT message that dropped many negative adjectives on the mother of the police's commander. You'd need to have nerves of steel if you wanted to ignore a signal THAT vulgar.'

Everyone looked at Qrow with confusion.

'Oop, apologies. Have I interrupted any of you?' Branwen's eyes slightly widened.

'Yes, me. Would you mind explaining how did you come in here with someone who's officially dead?' The blonde guy, Jaune, asked. He, out of all the people, seemed the most tense.

'Jaune, she already explained it.' Ruby intruded, getting a more serious look on her face.

'But I want to hear HIS version.' The boy responded with bitterness.

'I…seriously do not know how would that happen. Pyrrha did mention some kind of hell, but she doesn't want to talk about that.'

'What hell?! I need to know!' Jaune almost yelled this time, tears almost forming in his eyes.

'Maybe instead of making her relive trauma you show some understanding?' Ren coldly responded to the blonde guy with his arms crossed.

Everyone went silent and the atmosphere got tense again. Nick was about to say something…

When suddenly his scroll ringed. His ringtone was a borderline cheesy dance song so in order to stop it from making the situation more awkward he quickly got up from his seat and exited the dorm to pick up the call.

'Nicholas…you're in big trouble!' The irritated voice of Nick's aunt said.

'Auntie Glynda? Oh how splendid to hear from you!' Nick tried to pretend he's surprised.

'Do you have any idea how much fear you've caused me, young man? I was almost 100% sure you're lying in a ditch somewhere half-eaten!'

'Auntie, there's no reason for such graphic imagery. I'm a big boy, I can protect myself. And besides…I told you I'd help you with your problem at Beacon, no?'

'You're only a big boy on the outside, Nicholas…wait, where are you calling from?'

'From Haven. I met some of your past students, even traveled with two. Wanna say hi to them?'

'Haven?! What the hell are you doing there?'

'You'll see, just switch onto Face2Face mode.'

'What mode…oh, that's what this button is for.'

Shortly after these words Nick could see his aunt's face in his screen. She seemed to feel alright, she was sitting in her tent at Beacon's ruins. Nick waved at her to show her he's unharmed.

After that he walked back into the dorm holding his scroll up.

'Hey, everyone. I have someone on my scroll who would like to say hello to you.'

Everyone, even Ren, seemed confused but obliged and sat more properly in their seats. After that, Nick turned his scroll around to have Glynda's face looking directly at the people at the table.

'Uhhhhh…good morning, children.' She said awkwardly with a big blush on her face.

The entire room turned into a sea of wide eyes and fish gapes. Qrow stopped drinking for a second and also looked closely. He smiled and waved at the screen of the scroll.

'Professor Goodwitch?' Ren seemed to be glad to see the teacher in Nick's scroll.

'You're alive?!' Nora burst with enthusiasm, but didn't realize how rude that sounded. Glynda slightly frowned in response.

'Yes, as you all see, I still have all my limbs. You, on the other hand…oh, miss Xiao Long? I thought you've been crippled at the battle of Beacon.'

'Long story, professor. But how did you even manage to contact us?' Yang almost interrupted Glynda.

'You can ask Nicky over there about that. I see he hasn't exactly been 100% transparent with you, has he?' Goodwitch decided to put Nick on the spot for putting her in front of a wide audience. He did get a stern look from Qrow, Jaune and Ren but other than that everyone kept their eyes on the scroll.

'Well you sure seem like there's a lot of new chores on your head.' Qrow said to ease the tension and chuckled.

'Very funny, Branwen. As a matter of fact I have been researching the petrified/frozen Grimm we have as a new decoration of Beacon Tower. Almost as exciting as seeing children being launched off a cliff.'

Everyone shared a very loud laugh, including Glynda.

'But mine and Ironwood's suspicions were correct. That giant dragon is what keeps attracting the Grimm in the academy. Once there's a way for us to destroy it, I'll contact you again. Oh, and don't ask for details. That's...confidential.' Glynda bit her tongue at that last sentence, not wanting to completely expose Nick in front of everyone.

'And when is that solution gonna show up?' Qrow asked suspiciously.

Glynda looked away from the scroll for a second and sighed.

'They're calling me to the field. I gotta go. It was a pleasure to hear you and see you again, students. I hope you visit us when this whole mess is taken care of.'

After these words Glynda ended the call and Nick's scroll reverted to his dumb wallpaper with a child's drawing where somebody was shooting a poorly drawn Lancer in the thorax.

'Where do you know Glynda from?' Qrow immediately asked after Nick hid the scroll in the pocket of his pants.

'I suppose I should've told you all earlier than later. Glynda Goodwitch is my aunt. Her sister was my mum.' Nick responded, sounding a bit defeated.

'Goodwitch has a family?' Jaune awkwardly asked Ren, who was sitting next to him.

'So...you knew about me...that's why you've crashed near dad's house!' Yang yelled upon realization and stood up from the table. After giving Nick a slightly teary look she ran off from the table. Nick was confused, but after thinking for a while he realized why she may have felt sad at that moment.

'Would you excuse me for a moment?' Nick said and also got up from his seat. Ruby nodded with a sad look in her face as Nick was following the blonde girl.

'What could she mean?' Nora asked. She was the most confused out of everyone because she hardly listened.

'Heard from Tai that a bizarre individual crashed near his house and asked for Ruby and from Yang that she's got company...but I would never guess he was sent by Goodwitch.' Qrow said to himself out loud.

'Well...maybe he wasn't?' Ruby quietly interrupted her uncle's loud thoughts.

'You mean he would come all this way to find you without his aunt knowing?' Jaune asked.

'Ruby, be careful with him. He may not be worth trusting...' Qrow said in a snarky way

'We won't know if we don't try...' Ruby said, got up from her seat and slowly walked towards where Nick ran after Yang.

In the meantime Nick managed to find Yang at a courtyard that extended behind the dorm room. He slowly walked up to where she was sitting, blankly staring at the sunset. At some point, however, he stopped. He thought to himself that bothering her now could only anger him. He turned around and was about to walk away, but then he heard her voice.

'Why didn't you tell me?' She asked. Nick turned around and she was looking directly at him. Her eyes were changing colors between lilac and red rather rapidly.

'I...honestly don't know myself.' Nick said and decided to not look too dominant and sat next to her on the dirt.

'You could've told me immediately you're looking for Ruby, not...put up this act.'

'W-what act?' Nick asked, not understanding what Yang had in mind.

'The act of making me think our meeting was...a happy coincidence.'

'Happy...coincidence?'

'Yes, not something that you've planned from the start. If you had said earlier that you're your aunt's agent trying to find Ruby to finish off the giant Grimm in Beacon then we wouldn't have to do all...this.' Yang said and pointed at her restored right arm.

'Yang, I didn't make any plans about Ruby...ever. I acted on an impulse, trying to make my aunt's life easier, didn't care about details. That's...kind of a problem with me. But there was a good side to all of that.'

'What?'

'Why, I met you, of course. You could've left me there, under my motorcycle, hell you had every right to do so with one arm and all. But you didn't, you've rescued me by choice.'

'But you...you wanted to find Ruby...'

'At first I still had my debt to auntie in mind. But when you said she's your sister I decided I would first help you find her, the Grimm could've waited.'

'But that wouldn't be fair towards your aunt!'

'Auntie's a tough woman. And besides, I've seen what she's working with, she'll hold on long enough. Me, on the other hand...I've thought I went on a normal journey with someone I just treated like someone I'm indebted to...'

Yang's look was slowly softening because of Nick's words. He was convincing, because he didn't break his eye contact with her once. And hell, he probably was honest as well.

'But in the end, I went on a journey for the first time in forever with someone I could call, without a shred of doubt, a friend.'

Yang looked down in the dirt and was in absolute shock.

'I am...a friend to you?' She asked, now feeling strange warmth inside.

'I know we haven't known each other that long. But look at what we've gone through together. We've seen a dead person come to life.'

'Heh...we did. And saved an entire ship almost without making a noise.' Yang chuckled.

'We've played with fire, denying Hopsnatch's men the package, throwing tree branches at Grimm, didn't we?' Nick's smile was getting wider because Yang was beginning to smile as well.

'Yeah, we did! And even got some laughs out of that when I got to play with your hair!'

'Okay, maybe that...we can pretend it didn't happen?' Nick was trying hard not to laugh but Yang shook her head. 'And we've defeated one of the scariest Grimm that ever existed, didn't we?'

'Hell yeah we did!' Yang was now back to her cheerful self and Nick couldn't help but feel better now. The blonde girl, his friend, now sat there with a big smile on her face and chuckles being let out here and there. Nick soon joined in and eventually they've landed on their backs on the dirt, just laughing and reminiscing.

'Hey...I need to tell you something as well.' Yang said when she sat back up.

'Well, what is it?' Nick asked as he was lifting himself up as well.

'You're...a great friend to me as well.' She said with a small blush on her face. In response, Nick raised his hand a little and made it into a fist, suggesting they fist bump. Yang obliged and after a fake wind noise that followed their exchange of friendship they got up from the ground.

Ruby was standing in the doorway to the backyard and listening in on them. She felt better knowing that everything got resolved and when she peeked from behind the door at them they didn't get a suspicion that she was listening.

'Oh, you're coming back. That's great. Uncle Qrow said we could order something from outside of campus for tonight's dinner. Nick, was it? I hope you're staying.' The silver eyed girl said.

'Uhhhh...of course. If you'd let me, I mean.' Nick was once again feeling a bit awkward but this time from Ruby. Yang just gave him a mischievous smile.

Neither Yang, Nick nor Ruby could suspect that a very characteristic bird was watching them from a tree branch in the courtyard. It managed to stay quiet enough...

It was Ren who was ordering said food. Everyone settled on treating themselves to some sushi, even Nora. When Qrow smuggled the package with the treats back to the dorm (of course the school's law would never allow food from outside the cafeteria) it turned out Nick is quite skilled with chopsticks. Ren and Jaune decided to strike up a conversation...and it quickly turned into a chat between three best friends, even though Nick was a complete stranger to them.

'No, seriously! The training ground was closed in the afternoons so we either had chopsticks duels or just tried to eat raw wasabi on a dare.' Nick said through laughter as Ren was pouring himself and Jaune some tea.

'You must be joking! A whole wasabi ball without even soy sauce to cover it up?' Jaune shared Nick's laugh.

'Soy sauce doesn't make wasabi milder, Jaune.' Ren chuckled as he was pouring the tea in Nick's cup now.

'Yeah well it at least doesn't make you just taste the wasabi, blegh! On its own it tastes like pickled toenails or something!' Jaune couldn't stop himself from making a disgusting comparison.

'Hellooooo, we're eating here?' Nora joined in on the fun, previously only listening to the boys talking while she was chewing on a piece of salmon nigiri.

'Hey, Nora! Can you do that? Eat raw wasabi?' Ren asked her from his part of the table.

'Whaaaat? Why would I do that?' Nora just burst out laughing, but Jaune only pointed his finger in the air.

'Because we DARE you to eat that ball of wasabi here!' the blonde boy said with a smirk. Ren was shaking his head while Nick was just laughing with his mouth covered by his hands.

That was a mistake on Jaune's part, because shortly after he said that Nora took one of her chopsticks and impaled the green ball of infernally hot horseradish on it. She really was going to eat it, Ren could tell from tiny lightning bolts appearing in her eye corners.

'Jaune...can you cross that word out of your Nora vocabulary?' Ren asked when he realized there's no way back.

In the meantime, Ruby and Yang were catching up on their time apart. Qrow would sometimes join in on their conversation as he was eating a goma wakame salad.

'So...I guess you've really found your new great friend, huh?' Ruby asked her sister while she was observing Nick absolutely dying from laughter at Nora's crimson red face from eating wasabi.

'I know what you're thinking. I didn't think it would unfold like that either.' Yang said as she was dipping her piece of sushi roll in soy sauce on her tiny plate.

'No, I'm not going to criticize you for that. I just...you've never had that kind of bond with Weiss...or Blake...'

Yang's eyes went red for a split second but she quickly calmed down and grabbed a piece of pickled ginger to add to her plate.

'We agreed to...not mention that name when we don't have to, didn't we, Ruby?' She asked with a slight hint of anger as she put the piece of sushi roll in her mouth.

'We can't hold grudges forever, Yang. She may have run away, but...not before she made sure you're safe.' Ruby looked sadly into her cup of tea.

'I don't want to talk about it, okay? I've been through a lot before Nick showed up and after he did. And he already showed more will to be friends than Blake ever did.'

'You didn't seem to think that just an hour ago...'

'But I've realized I was wrong. Sometimes we may assume wrong about people, Ruby. I assumed wrong about Blake...and now I've made a wrong assumption about Nick. But I learn, okay? So just cut me some slack.'

After these words Yang angrily chewed on a piece of pickled ginger and Ruby decided to not press on her more. Instead, Ruby decided to cheer herself up by joining in on the fun Nick and the boys had with Nora.

Qrow, in the meantime, decided to strike up a casual conversation with Yang, hearing a few words without context from her earlier talk with Ruby. Everyone had a relatively good time at the table, so they didn't initially turn when the door to the dorm opened.

In the doorframe stood Tromberg, accompanied by an unknown boy, short in stature with tanned skin and a faint, perpetual blush and freckles on his cheeks. His hair was black and his eyes were hazel, the main iris being forest green, with accents of burnt orange and yellow around the pupil. He was wearing a dirty and scuffed white shirt that laced across the chest, olive pants with orange suspenders and worn brown boots. He seemed to hold a cane in his hand and seemed somehow familiar to Nick.

'What is the meaning of this?' She said in an official manner, failing to hide the seductiveness that may have just been a natural part of her voice.

'Easy, vice commander. They're all under my responsibility. Nothing bad is happening...' Qrow said with hands linked together and a dumb smile.

'I'll deal with you later, perfume offender. For now, there's more important things we need to discuss...oh, well would you look at that. Our sleeping beauty is already where he was supposed to be.' Tromberg looked at Van Thorne and couldn't help but wiggle her eyebrows at him a little bit. 'Van Thorne, for as long as you're on Haven's campus you will be assigned to this dormitory. You'll share a room with little Oscar here. Pray I don't find him harmed in any way or I'll personally stuff a pillow with your yanked out hair. Well, that's everything, I think...' Tromberg sounded actually menacing in that last sentence. Before she left, she snatched a piece of one of the sushi rolls and then she left, closing the door behind her with her hips. The boy she referred to as Oscar awkwardly took a step forward, but Qrow didn't let him feel too left out.

'Hey, pipsqueak! Come sit with us. We still have enough sushi for an 8th person.' He said in a surprisingly weird way.

'Eheh...I wouldn't want to impose too much...okay!' That last part the strange boy said in a different tone.

'Who is that kid?' Nick whispered to Ren.

'That's Oscar. Qrow brought him two days ago and said he was...'

But Ren didn't finish what he wanted to say because Qrow's and Nora's synchronized loud laughs upon seeing Oscar go red from eating a small drop of wasabi interrupted him. And after the situation calmed down, Ren forgot to finish his thought to Nick and Van Thorne was way too into talking with Nora and trying to get to know Oscar to go back to Ren.

The dinner lasted about two more hours until the sushi packages were completely empty and Qrow sent everyone to bed as if everyone was still a kid (well, except for Oscar).

The room Nick shared with the boy in farming clothes had two separate beds and wasn't exactly big, but cozy. Near where the bed was stood a small table with two chairs, a small bookcase underneath the windowsill and a heater underneath the second one. To the right of the bookcase stood the door to the bathroom. Nick immediately went to said bathroom to prepare for bed. He managed to find a toothbrush he hasn't unpacked yet in his coat and using an almost empty tub of toothpaste managed to brush his teeth. Once he was done he started to change into his sleeping outfit, which was just his underwear, but seeing as he shared a room with someone who wasn't a girl AND seemed underage this time he decided to keep his red t-shirt on. Right as he was about to leave the bathroom, he heard Oscar's voice. He put his ear close to the door and listened closely.

'You've said that already! Yeah, I know you've seen him before and want to talk to him. But I just want to sleep, please? Okay, promise me it will only take 20 minutes? Deal.'

Oscar seemed to talk to himself. Nick immediately went out of the bathroom to intervene, but what he saw wasn't completely what he expected.

Oscar's body let out a green flash and for a second his hair turned silver. For a moment Nick even had to cover his eyes. The flash was going on for about half a minute until it stopped and Nick moved his hands away from his eyes.

'Oscar?' Nick asked, feeling worried...but still feeling like he knows that flash and silver hair from somewhere.

Oscar turned around. His eyes seemed to have a different gleam in them and generally his look didn't seem like his. Instead of an awkward boy Nick had a feeling an elegant, overconfident man stands before him. He took a step back, but the boy put his cane in front of him and took a mysterious pose.

'Nicholas Van Thorne...What a pleasant surprise. You seem to have grown up a lot since the last time I saw a photo of you...'

That wasn't Oscar's voice. It sounded like his, but it felt like someone else was intertwining with it, making it sound completely different. And that voice...it sounded familiar to Nick as well, if Oscar's voice were taken out of it.

'Who...who are you? You're not Oscar, are you?' Nick was in utter shock and disbelief.

'I am a friend of your father's. He must have certainly mentioned me to you, but I haven't seen you in person until now. I used to work with your aunt.'

Nick's shock only grew bigger, but not because of seeing Oscar's weird change. The shock came from the fact that now he realized why he was so familiar.

'You're...Ozpin!' He said out loud upon realization.


	9. Meanwhile In Atlas

While Nick and the rest of the group had a rather peaceful time in Haven, a different story was unfolding in a different part of Remnant...

'Oy, William! Hey, William! Wake up already. You've hit the bottle pretty hard yesterday, didn't you?'

William Vengh opened his eyes and let out a very unpleasant groan when the dim light of his room tried to blind him. He didn't even bother taking off his coat or dress shirt because he knew he wouldn't sleep for too long.

'Did I oversleep?' Was his first question when he washed his face in the tiny sink.

'No, but we're starting in 15 minutes. Here, take two of these breath mints. You know where you need to go, don't you?'

'Yeah, Klein. You can stop holding my hand now.' Vengh responded as he started chewing the breath mints and getting cleaned up. Shortly after that he opened the door to his room and left.

The man who woke him up was Klein Sieben. He was the butler in the house they both worked in, while William fulfilled bodyguard duties, officially to all the family members, but in reality he only owed loyalty to the man of the house...and in truth, he cared little for his loyalty.

Klein was a slightly overweight man with balding brown hair and a large mustache. He usually had light brown eyes and that was a good sign for William.

Said bodyguard was now walking down a corridor with the butler accompanying him. The clacking of Vengh's black dress shoes against the cold marble floor of the mansion echoed particularly loud. The two climbed the staircase underneath which the bodyguard had his small room and slowly walked across the hall to where their boss's office was.

'I'll never stop getting nauseous from the overwhelming white colors of this house.' Vengh scoffed as the two were passing by a room with a piano.

'Well, you fit right in despite wearing different colors. Having that perspective might change your mind a little bit.' Said Klein as he quickly took a tray with what appeared to be a tea and coffee set on it from a nearby whatnot (which, of course, was white).

The boss they were heading to was Jacques Schnee, current head of the Schnee family and its Dust Company. Neither Klein nor William considered him a good boss in any way, but William had the advantage that he was at least being paid for his services. Other than money, both workers had different people in the house they liked working for. For William, it was his boss's wife, the lady of the house, Willow. As for Klein...

'Hot coffee, Miss Schnee?' The butler asked a figure that just appeared from behind the door to their left, which was their destination.

Said figure was Weiss, one of the boss's children, his younger daughter. She was a pale-skinned young woman with pale blue eyes and long white hair that was often pulled back into an off-center ponytail on the right side and pinned with a silver, icicle-shaped tiara. Down her left eye and face ran a faint scar that didn't stand out at first sight. William also had a scar running down his left eye, but it was impossible to not notice. That's where his common ground with that Schnee ended, because instead of a left eye William had a cybernetic optic implant of an eye that gave him quite an intimidating factor, making him the perfect bodyguard for the Schnees.

'I always find he keeps his study dreadfully cold.' Klein said rather not quietly to the young lady. It slightly impressed William, considering he had a hunch that the walls in the Schnee manor could have ears and eyes everywhere.

Weiss gave her butler a warm smile and took said cup of coffee from his tray gently into her hands. She thanked him...and that's when she noticed William, leaning against his walking stick behind the butler. At first she gave him a rather tense stare, but Klein was quick to notice it.

'Oh, I guess you two haven't met yet! William, this is Weiss Schnee, the third child of our boss I told you about.'

But Weiss didn't look away even for a second. William was a very intimidating man, standing at nearly 5 feet and 10 inches while Weiss was a mere 4 feet and 11 inches. In addition to that Vengh wore a long grey trench coat buttoned in the middle, dark blue dress pants, a white dress shirt underneath, matching gloves with wires sticking out of the knuckles area, a dark blue scarf encircling his neck entirely and a dark grey top hat. He had short black hair and a matching goatee that ran from below his lower lip to the end of his chin.

'Miss Schnee, this is William Vengh. He's your father's new bodyguard, so that means he'll also look after you, master Whitley and Miss Willow.' Klein finished introductions and that's when Weiss's gaze softened a little.

'I figured you wouldn't be a cake butler.' She uttered her first words to the intimidating figure accompanying Klein with a smirk.

'Hmph. Unless you would want me to smash somebody's face into said cake, I'm not familiar with pastries.' William responded with a rather morbid joke, as most people would have expected.

'I don't think that's going to be necessary.' Weiss responded and chuckled.

'You know what I think though?' Klein said and awkwardly covered his face with the now empty tray. After he removed it his eyes were red. 'I think there's someone behind these doors who could use one.' He said in a rather cartoony evil voice.

'Klein!' Weiss was now giggling while William was nervously looking around, hoping none of the other family members heard that.

After a couple more dumb impersonations from Klein William knocked on the door, leaving the butler with Weiss to share their laughs on their own. He already had an opinion about his newest supervisor...and he considered her "vomit inducing". William wasn't exactly someone with a positive outlook on life. For his boss, that was a good thing. For Klein it was what kept William in his cycle of bad life choices and grumpiness.

'Come in!' A voice from behind the doors said and William pushed on the doorknob.

Jacques Schnee was fair-skinned with white, slicked-back hair and a large, thick mustache and cold blue eyes. He was wearing a pure white double-breasted blazer with a red handkerchief in the breast pocket, a light-blue dress shirt, vest and a white clip-on tie. In addition, there was a silver ring on one of his fingers.

'Ah, Vengh...my trustworthy bodyguard. I'm glad to see you're back on your feet, I trust my wife's brandy didn't make you sick?' William's boss asked.

'No, sir. My head suffered worse injuries...' The bodyguard responded with a weird comment.

'So you've mentioned in your resume...tell me William, do you smoke Duskleaf?'

Jacques asked that out of the blue, completely catching his bodyguard off guard. William's eyes went very wide for a second but after seeing his boss smirking he just straightened his neck and nodded in defeat.

'Do not be alarmed. Your secrets are safe with me. The only reason I'm bringing that up is because in the coming weeks the Schnee family will hold a charity concert. And for that event I need you to be sober. Understood?'

William looked a little annoyed but nodded. Jacques menacingly locked his hands together.

'You've certainly met my daughter, Weiss, haven't you? She'll perform at the event. Afterwards we'll have a little reception. You'll be free to socialize there but I'll still need you to look after my girl. Can you do that?' Jacques asked, getting his face a little closer to William's.

'Yes, sir.' The bodyguard responded.

After their last exchange of nods, William was free to go. When he exited Jacques's office, Weiss and Klein were nowhere to be seen. With no place left to go, Vengh decided to take a routine walk around the corridors of the Schnee manor. This time, however, he held his cane close as if he expected something bad to happen in all that silence.

In the middle of a corridor where the rooms of the boss's children were William came across another one of his supervisors. As always, he was not happy to see him.

'Taking your routine walk, as usual?' Another face of pale blue eyes and white hair asked him with a sarcastic smirk.

'Whitley...' William said, not hiding his disliking of Jacques Schnee's youngest child.

Whitley Schnee was the youngest of Jacques's children and the most disliked of supervisors by William. He was wearing a short-sleeved white dress shirt, the sleeves fastened just above his elbows by navy blue cuffs, each with twin gold buttons, a light blue vest, with a black handkerchief in his right breast pocket, a black necktie, navy blue pants and black dress shoes, almost identical to William's. The bodyguard disliked him greatly yet at times felt a strange connection with him but unlike Jacques, Whitley had no problems using his secrets against him.

'Father told you about the charity event, right? I hope you look forward to it as much as I do.' Whitley said with one hand behind his back.

'You told him about Duskleaf, didn't you?' William decided to immediately confront the insolent child.

'And if I did?' Whitley smirked even more.

'Well you didn't succeed. Your father just doesn't want me smoking it during the event.' It was William's turn to be insolent. After that he wiggled his eyebrows at the young boy.

Whitley was visibly displeased but William wasn't so keen on seeing that expression on him. Instead he took out a cigarette case from a pocket of his coat, took out a smoke with a characteristic green filter in the back, inserted it into a handle he had in his case and started digging for a lighter.

'Hold on, I have a lighter somewhere around...here!' Whitley decided to keep up his formal attitude for once and lit William's cigarette with a white lighter with his father's Dust Company's logo on it.

'Why, that was surprisingly decent of you.' William said as he blew smoke from a whiff.

'Slip in one cigarette and you'll have Winter off your back for the event as well, what do you say?' Whitley said and bowed a little bit before straightening his back again.

'Kid, you're underage...but that's a better scenario than having to deal with Winter's conspiracy theories.' William sighed and gently took out another one of green cigarettes from his silver case. He quickly gave it to Whitley and after putting the case back in his coat he nervously started to walk away. Whitley looked at the little "gift" he got from his dad's bodyguard and put it in the pocket of his pants with a grin.

After about a week and a half William was called in to the charity concert. He was ordered to sit right next to Jacques and Whitley at a high standing balcony.

The concert was boring. Weiss may have had a great voice, but the overall strict nature of the concert was making Vengh sleepy. What was making him annoyed the most were the lyrics he managed to catch. It all seemed whinier than Whitley's complaints if Klein didn't sprinkle salt in his omelet. Nevertheless, he tried to clap along with the boss's son once the concert was over, anxious that he would get in trouble if he didn't. Jacques didn't clap, instead he was smiling while keeping his hands linked together. Whitley even stood up in his applause, but William had no interest in giving Weiss that much courtesy.

After the concert, there was the reception Jacques announced to his bodyguard. William was present there, trying to stay close to his familiar figures. But at times he felt like Jacques didn't really need protection and took him to that event only to show him off to the rich and obnoxious of Atlas. As it later turned out, he shared the same kind of anxiety as Weiss. The very stuck up waiters (even more eloquent looking than Whitley) were handing drinks with an ironic half of an orange stuck as a decoration. Jacques insisted that William took one to "relax after enduring the concert". Vengh stood there awkwardly with one of his hands on his cane, the other holding the cocktail glass with God-knows-what in it.

Jacques was having a blast, unlike William, Weiss and even Whitley. He was talking to a stuck up looking businessman in glasses with very thick frames.

'That's precisely my point! We offer Faunus the exact same wages given to the rest of our mining staff! Their argument's completely invalid right out of the gate!' He said with his typical arrogant tone.

Weiss looked at William in defeat, hoping he's not enjoying the sarcastic nature of her father's conversation. She was fortunate when her gaze met with the bodyguard's and he looked even more depressed than her. After a few subconscious messages they gave each other from their looks, Weiss nodded and was about to walk away with William following her...

When Jacques suddenly grabbed her by the hand, making William's heart jump a bit. And it looked like a rather tight grip than a gentle pull.

'Where are you going?' He asked her with a stern look.

'I'm...just a little thirsty.' She responded with a shaky voice.

'Sweetheart, we have people for that.' Jacques responded and was about to raise his hand to call the waiter but his daughter gently tucked at his arm.

'What? No, I can get it. I'll be right back, I promise.' Weiss insisted. After a long glare from Jacques he looked back at the businessman he talked to, as if it was a sign for Weiss to go. But before he returned to the conversation he covered his mouth with his hand and turned to William.

'Go with her. Make sure she doesn't do anything stupid.' He said rather strictly.

William only nodded and slowly followed the short girl. But she wasn't going towards the table with the drinks...

Instead Vengh followed Weiss to a big painting protected by a red fence, like at a movie premiere. The girl stood there with her arms crossed. But before approaching her, William decided to empty his drink and as he expected, it was a disgusting mix of bad gin with even worse vermouth. After pulling himself together, he decided to pretend to blend in with the crowd. That way he wouldn't disobey Jacques's order and he also wouldn't have to speak to Weiss.

The painting she was looking at was a landscape of a monumental, yet beautiful complex of various towers and similar buildings encircling them. Everything on it was soaked in either bright yellow colors of the lights in said black towers or the emerald green meadows at the very bottom of the picture. The top of the painting was a dark blue sky with shiny white dots symbolizing stars. It looked like an idealized picture, and the small sign right behind the security fence read: "Show the world we care. All proceeds go to the Kingdom of Vale".

'It's beautiful.' Some voice uttered out of the blue right next to Weiss. William looked in her direction at that moment and his frown from tasting the drink immediately returned. "Ah God, not this asshole again!" He thought to himself as he was slowly coming through the people he tried to blend in with.

It was Henry Marigold, a frequent visitor to Schnee family's receptions. William had to deal with him at each and every one of them as he would try to "disturb" some of his boss's or Whitley's guests. He was a young man with light-brown eyes and dull-blue hair in an undercut hairstyle, with the long unshaven hair swept to his left and hanging slightly in his face. He was wearing a maroon dress shirt and black tie with a black vest decorated with a marigold flower design, silver buttons, and a breast pocket containing a red handkerchief. Along with that, he was wearing a pair of black pants and gray dress shoes. Something William already remembered too well about him was the black belt he was wearing over his vest and a silver chain connected to the front of it, with the other end trailing into his left pocket.

William didn't pay attention to what that known to him asshole was saying, but from Weiss's expression he was getting a good impression on it. As always, the spoiled brat of the Marigold family was proudly expressing his ignorance and attempting to poorly flirt with everything that moves and has a narrow waistline.

Henry didn't notice William until he was already in the range of wiping the floor with him.

'Leave!' Weiss yelled, not noticing the bodyguard her father assigned to her. It was the last word William heard until his shadow was already casted on Marigold.

'Are you lost?' Vengh menacingly uttered and put his hand on Henry's shoulder. His optic implant gleamed with intimidation.

All confidence left the asshole with blue hair. William could feel as he swallows saliva upon the mere sight of him and his hand with a champagne glass starts shaking.

'William Vengh...hahaha...how...how delightful to see you, my friend! I didn't notice you at the concert...' He tried to keep a grin on his face, but he couldn't. William threw him off many parties in the past, quite often in a rather spectacular way. Once he even broke a window on the other end of a hall with a kick to the chest when Jacques wanted Henry gone. Yet he still showed up...every time. And every time for only one reason. The Marigold family was too important for Jacques to lose contact with. But that never extended to kids...

'I'll just...be on my way...I remembered I was supposed to meet a friend here after the concert...hehehe...excuse me!' Henry nervously giggled and freed himself from William's hand. After that he quickly walked away and the bodyguard was left with Weiss, who was staring at him with both a bit of irritation and a hidden gratefulness for getting rid of the annoying admirer. He was about to start a conversation with the girl...

But then both of them heard particularly loud laughs not too far from them. From William's experience he knew that meant trouble. "Just how much more shit will I have to take this evening? And I can't have a smoke either, fuck!" he thought to himself.

'But really, does it come as any surprise what happened to Vale?' A giggly and rather obnoxious voice of a woman could be heard coming from where William didn't turn his attention yet.

But Weiss...she made a sharp turn. So sharp in fact, that William heard the whoosh her ponytail made in the air. And that could mean only one thing: There was a disaster in the making...and Weiss was the party pooper. "Oh boy, guess the situation with Vale must be her trigger topic..." Another thought went through William's mind as he glanced at Weiss, whose disgusted and annoyed frown could be felt from the other end of the hall. She was not as easy to watch over as Jacques or Whitley. William could already feel the pay cuts he would get from her behavior.

'It was a long time coming if you ask me.' The same woman added, unaware that about half a meter away from her a cyborg with a limp is trying very hard to prevent her potential murder.

'If they're so arrogant to think they can get by without proper kingdom defense, then I say good riddance.' The same woman uttered yet another sentence, this time making William look in her direction. It was a woman who could be called a trophy wife at a first glance. Ridiculously snobby platinum blonde hair, tanned skin, dark purple dress with exposed shoulders and an unnaturally big (possibly drawn) black beauty spot under her left eye...all of it only confirmed that she was not someone who could be appreciated for her intelligence. Next to her stood a clearly more self-conscious man, possibly her husband, who tried to make her stop by gently pulling her elbow and awkwardly grinning at the people around him. "And...let the games begin!" William thought to himself, noticing already that he'll have no chance convincing Weiss to keep calm.

'SHUT UP!' She yelled so loud the entire hall went quiet and every pair of eyes focused on her. William was now filled with regret that he didn't do more to stop Weiss because these stares were speeding up his heartbeat and making him panic.

Among these stares Vengh caught the very concerned, yet cold look from Jacques. Whitley was cowering somewhere behind him with two fingers on his mouth.

'You don't have a clue! None of you do!' Weiss was just getting started.

At that moment William knew it was too late to try and redeem himself. He made sure Jacques is more focused on his daughter making a scene and was now slowly backing up towards the crowd and the exit as Weiss was walking closer towards the trophy wife. Thankfully, he managed to blend in with a group of people. Problem was, one of these people was Henry Marigold. Just when William was going to show him his place with sign language, the brat just ran two fingers across his lips, imitating a zipper, and gave a thumbs up. William responded with a similar sign, positively surprised that Henry showed some sign of decency as Weiss was just getting more and more fired up.

'Weiss, that's enough!' Jacques now personally intervened and was again tightly holding his daughter's hand. William was now wondering if he's going to get fired for not being in his place beforehand.

'Let go of me!' Weiss yelled back at him.

'You're embarrassing the family!' Jacques wasn't going to let go.

'I said let go!' Weiss yelled and sharply pulled her hand away from him, which made her trip and fall on her right cheek.

Upon contact with the floor, Weiss's head let out a bright white glow and a strange symbol resembling a snowflake appeared on the ground. William recognized it, he remembered seeing Winter, Jacques's oldest daughter, creating a similar symbol on the ground in the mansion's back courtyard. It made a monster appear. That was William's cue to reach into one of his prosthetic leg implants. And right on time...

Where the symbol once was now stood a Boarbatusk, a Grimm that resembled a wild boar with rabies. But unlike its natural equivalent this one was pristine white and had teal blue eyes instead of red. William put two fingers on his head's temple and his optic implant automatically located the Grimm. Now all he needed was a few seconds to lock on the target.

The Grimm roared and charged forward, towards where the trophy wife stood, terrified and begging for her life. It certainly would've been a tragedy in there if that Boarbatusk did anything it planned after menacingly jumping in the air...

But it didn't. While it was in the air a few loud bangs went through the hall and the Grimm fell right in front of the trophy wife, immediately dissolving into a tiny stream of fog. William stood right in front of the group of people where he bumped into Henry Marigold, holding his weapon close to his optic implant.

Vengh wielded a two-handed dark blue submachine gun in pristine condition. Its barrel was slightly smoking, but what was unique the gun had 2 barrels. The one William fired from was the upper one, above it was what appeared to be a laser sights emitter and below was a barrel for a much larger projectile (thankfully William didn't need to use it). Behind the bigger barrel was a hand drawn symbol of a Sea Feilong and right behind it an empty space with the words "Fat Kim" written on it in an old Mistrali dialect. The lower body of the gun ended with the trigger, a handle where the safety lock was, and a stock proportional in shape to the gun's front.

He stood there for a second with his gun still smoking until he put it away from his eye, switched on the safety and pointed it up with one hand. Everyone's gazes were at him, but he couldn't find it in himself to utter a single word to the crowd.

'Arrest her! She's insane, she should be locked up!' The trophy wife was now yelling, proving how fake she acted not too long ago. William only chuckled in response and closed his eyes.

'She's the only one making sense around here...' Another voice said in the crowd and stepped forward, closer to where William was subconsciously trying to cover Weiss from the judgmental gazes.

It was none other than general James Ironwood, an acquaintance of Jacques whom William met quite frequently. He didn't feel sympathy towards him as he worked with Winter, but said general showed far more trust in him. And that was enough for William to tolerate him.

Ironwood turned to Schnee's bodyguard and gave a little nod.

'Impressive aim, Mr. Vengh...' He smiled, gave Jacques a tense stare with an even smaller nod and walked away towards the exit. The situation was in control. But William felt that his trouble has only just begun...

The next day Jacques didn't call William into his office. Instead, through Klein, sent a torn piece of paper to him with a short message:

" _Thank you for interfering. Meet me in front of Weiss's room at 12:00. J"_

Klein decided to show William the way to Weiss's room as he has never been there before. As it turned out, it was very close to Whitley's room, behind a door Vengh barely ever noticed during his routine walks.

'But...I'd suggest you don't knock on the door this time...' Klein said with visible gloom in his voice and walked away. William decided to wait by the door to Weiss's room. At first he started reaching into his coat's pocket in search for his cigarettes...

But he could hear Jacques's furious voice. And at that moment he realized smoking in that situation would only add fuel to the fire.

'And DON'T think I'm just talking about Lien here!'

"Boss, I don't charge that much..." William sarcastically thought to himself as he heard Jacques yelling at Weiss behind the closed door.

'I don't want to stay in Atlas anymore!' William could hear Weiss yelling back...in a way. She sounded a lot less feisty this time.

'Young lady, I don't give a DAMN about what you want!' Jacques fired back, making William actually hiss at the thought of hearing such words from anyone. "That's...gotta sting".

After that he heard some muffled words from Weiss, clearly annoyed at her father's words...and what followed was a sound of a slap. Even William would make wide eyes witnessing that. And so he did. He called it too early. But the quarrel continued.

'You can't just keep me from leaving!' Weiss yelled at some point. William sighed, because that meant he'll have more problems than he thought at first.

The quarrel continued for about a minute more. During that, William heard familiar steps.

'Good morning, Whitley.' He said to the person passing him by.

'Good morning, William.' Whitley didn't seem to be in the mood for mischief and just stood awkwardly in front of William, against the wall on the other side, with both his hands behind his back.

'It's time to wake up...and face reality.' Jacques said. William heard him clearly this time because he was at the door. And after that, the door to Weiss's room opened and Vengh's boss slowly walked out, letting the door creak behind him as it closed...

But right before it could close completely the same door violently opened.

'Whitley!' Weiss yelled after her younger brother, who was about to follow his father down the corridor. William didn't utter a word.

'Yes, sister?' Whitley asked with an innocent voice.

'Did you know about this?' Weiss asked with clear irritation.

'About what?' Whitley responded with another question, poorly faking confusion.

'You never liked Winter. You never liked me. But you've been nothing but supportive since the moment I came back.' Weiss was sounding like she's about to accuse her brother of something.

At that moment William knew he was listening in. He walked from behind where the opened door stopped and at a fast pace rushed out of the corridor, not wanting to be any more involved in that family dispute than he already was...even though that wasn't his family in any regard.

From where said quarrel took place William bolted straight towards where Jacques's study was. His breath was speeding up a lot and he only had one thing in mind: to tell his boss he needs a few days off. But he wasn't lucky.

'Whoa, whoa! William, slow it down there!' Klein almost let go of a tray he held in his right hand.

'Klein, I can't do this anymore! This family, it's...it's...fuck!' Vengh couldn't catch a breath as he was slowly leaning against an armchair that was in the corridor.

'You're having flashbacks again. I know you're boiling up inside, but just do what you did last month in the gardens with Miss Willow. Deep breaths...and think about pasta.' Klein seemed to know what to do. As if he has seen William act like this before.

'Klein, is everything alright?' Whitley's voice could be heard not far.

'Master Whitley! Oh, uh...it's nothing. William just needs to rebalance his breath.' Klein said and grinned awkwardly.

'I guess he's having a hard time calming down after yesterday...' Whitley said and got closer, trying to look closer at William.

Thankfully, Vengh got back up on his feet shortly after Whitley appeared. He dusted off his coat, took the cane in his hand and slowly walked forward, promising Klein he'll meet him after making sure Jacques doesn't need him.

'You've really saved the situation from getting worse back there...thanks.' Jacques said as the first thing to William when he entered his office and shook his hand.

'I simply followed my instinct, sir.' William replied, not looking Jacques directly in the eyes.

'And that was enough. Despite the fact that my daughter has dragged this company closer to its downfall with her stunt I wish to somehow reward you for your quick wits. Take this day off. I can see that the stress is still weighing on you...stressed out you're not nearly as productive.' Jacques said, noticing traces of sweat on William and the fact that he was still looking away.

'Thank you, sir.' William said and gave Jacques a short glance before pulling his top hat a little more down to hide his eyes.

'You may go now.' Jacques responded with his hands linked together.

The bodyguard met Whitley again as he traveled the corridor. It almost made him worry about the lack of Weiss's mother around.

'I'm going to town with father today to meet some business partners. Shame you have a day off. We could've looked for an even better uniform for you together.' The youngest Schnee said with a devious smirk. William found it hard not to punch him at that moment.

After a few more exchanged words, Whitley left. William now had a new goal in mind, now that he had a day off. It was to check up on Weiss.

But as he was going there, he saw that somebody else was on their way to her room as well.

'So you have a day off. Wonderful! You've been working yourself too hard recently, especially with that night shift at the back courtyard. You realize how cold it is outside?' Klein said. This time he had no tray in his hand so he just played with the chain of his pocket watch.

'Not you too, Klein. I already have enough of a bother with boss treating me like I'm part of the family...'

But William didn't finish as both him and the butler heard a loud sound of a glass shattering and cold air. It came from Weiss's room. Without hesitation they both dashed across the corridor. Klein rapidly opened the door and Vengh pointed his cane forward this time.

'Miss Schnee, are you alright?!' Klein yelled into the room with his eyes closed. But what they both saw was a much different sight. Weiss was kneeling on one knee, holding a strange rapier in her hands and right in front of her on the floor was the huge snowflake symbol. But this time in its place didn't stand a Grimm, but a huge pristine white knight with a double-handed sword. William pointed his gun down on the ground. It wasn't making him eager to fight like the Boarbatusk. That thing looked more...magnificent.

'As you can see, I am fine.' She said with a smirk. After another stare at Klein, the butler nodded and his eyes stopped looking so scared at that moment. But William yet again felt as if he's not in the right place.

The rest of the day William sat in his room under the stairs, smoking and tapping his foot nervously as he sat on his bed. He didn't know what to do. For the first time since he started working as a bodyguard for Jacques he had no idea how to behave. Should he side with Weiss? The way Jacques treated her was scandalous. But can he really risk that much? What if Jacques only pretended like William has a day off and in reality he's testing his loyalty? If William failed that loyalty test he could be facing the loss of his job. And what about Whitley? He's probably even smarter than his father, he's gonna know if William failed or not. And Willow? Why is she nowhere near where William's allowed to walk? He always enjoyed serving her when Klein wasn't around. Willow had a good heart...could he risk losing experiencing the warmth of that heart for someone he doesn't even like?

When the night came, William was still deep in his thoughts. He went to sleep in his entire outfit, not even taking off his top hat. He smoked too much Duskleaf and now his mind was pulsing with the will to act...

And that was when he heard clicking right above him. As if they were somebody's heels. "Weiss!" he thought to himself. He quickly got himself up from the bed, took the gun out of its container in his leg and snuck out of his room.

Indeed, Weiss was walking down the corridor, her bizarre rapier drawn and a white suitcase in her other hand. What was worse, Klein was right in front of her, seemingly leading her somewhere. "Klein, you fucking numbskull!" William thought to himself and ran up the stairs, having an idea as to where these two could be going and knowing an alternate route for it. In the meantime he passed a corridor near Jacques's office where he was loudly arguing, this time with Ironwood. But this quarrel William wasn't going to listen to.

William dashed across the staircase that led to the first floor and through the corridor to the library. Once he was there, he started looking around nervously...

Suddenly he heard as if a heavy object was being pushed. When he located the source, it turned out one of the bookcases was being pushed from inside. Without hesitation, William pointed his rifle in that direction. The bookcase slowly pushed further and further until it became fit for a regular person to fit in.

It was Klein who opened that secret door. William knew about it from Willow.

'William!' Klein almost yelled when he saw that it isn't Weiss who just arrived at the library, but an intimidating cyborg with a gun and on way too much nicotine.

'Forgive me, Sieben. I cannot take that much of a risk.' William said coldly with his gun still aimed at Klein.

'William, listen to me! Jacques is keeping you here like in a golden cage! You think you've got everything you've needed here but you don't! I've seen how you look at Whitley, at boss, at Miss Winter. You don't have to put yourself through this!' Klein was pleading with William.

'You don't understand that if I lose this job I have nowhere to go?! I wanted to have a normal life. As normal as I could after what happened. This job is the closest I ever had to that. And if you and that child get me fired, you'll ruin my life!'

It was at that moment that Weiss ran into the library. Upon seeing William with his gun drawn she pointed her rapier at him with the intent to harm him.

'Miss Schnee, don't! He's not going to attack!' Klein tried to calm down the situation.

'He's loyal only to my father. I can't let him bring me to him.'

'Lady, I won't hesitate to put a hole through your knee if you use that toothpick on me.' William was getting angry.

'Miss Schnee, please put that rapier down. William just doesn't want to end up homeless!' Klein couldn't keep Vengh's secret any longer.

'Klein, I told you to keep it to yourself...' William was now aiming directly at the butler's head.

'What do you mean?' Weiss was now confused and her rapier was a little bit down.

'William, can you...show her your leg?' Klein asked with visible difficulty.

After an intense minute William put down his gun and unfolded the leg of his pants, showing Weiss not only his prosthetic, but also...an emblem that was there. A big M written in a hexagon surrounding it. Weiss gasped.

'It's...that's...Merlot's emblem...' She stuttered.

'So you know of him...I was his errand boy. Cleaning up after the mess his pets and robots did, getting rid of people who knew about his island...and one day, he just vanished. Left me to die. Like a toy you toss away after you're done testing its resistance to the floorboards. Now you know what I am.' William explained, not looking at the Schnee girl.

'He's just...trying to cut that part out of his life.' Klein awkwardly said.

William didn't say anything, just stared into nothingness. When Weiss walked up to him and tried to touch his shoulder, Klein grunted and shook his head very strictly.

'Go, there's not much time. I'll...I'll be fine.' Vengh sighed in defeat, knowing he won't be able to stop neither Weiss nor Klein, considering his mind was now replaying those horrible moments.

Once Weiss was already behind the bookcase and Klein was closing it, she uttered one last sentence to William.

'Come find me...in Mistral...' After these words the bookcase closed and Klein remained alone with William.

The next morning William was called in to Jacques's office immediately. He already found out as he saw the broken window in Weiss's room. As it turned out both him and Klein were called in.

The butler and the bodyguard sat in two armchairs as Jacques was menacingly staring at them both with his hands linked as always. The only thing that could be heard was the pendulum ticking in the clock standing near one of the bookcases in Jacques's office.

'The window will be easy to fix. It's not cheap, but better that than constant cold air in the manor.' Jacques said after nearly 20 minutes of unsettling silence.

'But...in case of my daughter it's not a problem we can fix with Lien...' He said and scratched his head's temple.

William and Klein still didn't say anything. They knew any moment now Jacques is going to blame them and possibly fire.

'Her escape was carefully planned out. So that means either one of you aided her, or you were too incompetent to stop her...' The boss was starting to speak in a much more intimidating tone now.

Klein looked at his pocket watch. He was getting more and more nervous by the minute.

'Klein...you were on the shift last night. Do you have anything to present that could prove your innocence?' Jacques looked Klein straight in the eyes.

William was pissed. If Jacques called him out, that meant the friendly butler would lose his job. Klein, the only person who truly treated William like family and who actually considered Schnees his family...no. He couldn't let that happen...so he stood up from his armchair.

'I am responsible...sir.' He said.

Jacques looked at him with wide eyes.

'William? But you've had a day off yesterday.'

'I've taken the night shift for Klein, sir. It was my mistake that allowed Weiss to escape the manor, sir.'

Jacques has now focused his sight entirely on his bodyguard. Klein was trying to say something but words were stuck in his throat. Meanwhile, the SDC's boss's expression was slowly shifting from anger to...sadness.

'William, it was very noble of you to try and help Klein with his biological cycle. But you weren't allowed to fulfill for someone else without my permission...and Weiss's escape is no small mistake I can forgive. That is why I must call for your resignation.' Jacques clearly wasn't happy that he was firing William. He was both sad and...somehow disappointed.

'I understand. I shall take full responsibility...' William wanted to end with his usual "sir" but bit his tongue.

'William Vengh, you need to abandon the Schnee Manor until midnight. Your payment for this month will be transferred to your account. That's...everything.' These last sentences Jacques barely said.

William did it. Klein didn't lose his job. But instead, he had to leave the Manor the same day. Vengh decided to waste no time and packed his things. Once he was in his full traveling attire and with the small rucksack he was carrying, he went out towards the front exit. Whitley and Klein were already there.

'Father said you're leaving...it's a shame.' Whitley also seemed sad to see William go. Vengh wanted to be bitter and say something snarky to the youngest Schnee but...instead the boy hugged him. It was a shock for William. So big of a shock in fact that he didn't return the hug and when Whitley finally let go of him he went away with his head looking down.

'You should not have done that.' Klein was feeling guilty and could hardly look Vengh in the eyes.

'I did what you've told me yesterday. I couldn't let you lose your family as well...' William wasn't planning on saying a long goodbye to him. He just smirked and chuckled. But when he was about to turn and head for the exit, Klein hugged him as well.

'Take care of yourself...and if you do find Miss Schnee in Mistral...come visit me sometime...' William could feel as Klein's tears are dripping down and staining his coat.

'I will never understand what you people have with hugs.' William responded surprisingly cold. Of course he didn't return a hug to Klein, even though...he was like family to him.

Once the door to Schnee Manor closed behind William, the now jobless cyborg headed straight for the airship landing in Atlas. Below, the bustling city of Mantle was being quite busy and loud. He had no problem buying a ticket and as he sat in the nearby terminal, awaiting a bullhead, somebody sat right next to him.

It was an unknown to him woman. But she did remind him a little of the trophy wife from the reception. However, she had two beauty marks, one under her right eye and one under her mouth. She had light-blond hair tied into a ponytail, tanned skin and violet eyes. Her outfit looked similar to William's, she also had a coat and a scarf, but also an undercoat. The strangest thing he thought about when he saw her though was a brooch resembling a bird pinned on her scarf.

'Traveling far?' She asked out of the blue, probably wanting to kill time.

'Argus.' William coldly replied.

'Not a bad idea. Guess you're trying to escape the general's martial law as well, huh?' She asked. But William didn't respond to her and instead just grunted like a snoring bear. The woman took another look at him, took a deep breath and stopped trying to strike up a chat again.

When the bullhead landed and William noticed it, he was not positive anything good will happen.

'Fuck.' He just said out loud to himself as he was picking himself up from the bench.

'Until we meet again.' The woman said, which turned out really weird for William. He quickly walked up to the bullhead and once its entrance let out a staircase he and a bigger group of other people from Atlas who were either traveling just to Mantle to work or were escaping just like him got on board. Once William took a seat he could officially tell himself, that the chapter of life that he shared with the Schnees was over. Officially...but was he really free from ever seeing them again?


	10. Reunions & Betrayals

Upon Nick's realization at who the boy was to say he was shocked would be an understatement. He had only heard of Ozpin a few times from his dad. But he wasn't nearly as what he imagined him.

'So...you are the headmaster of Beacon? That big boss my aunt couldn't stop mentioning? That ally my dad corresponded with all the time?' Nick said after his initial shock was slowly leaving and Oscar nodded to everything.

'I know this may come off as a bit of a surprise for you, but currently this is what I look like.' He said with that same strange voice.

'No shit...' Nick responded and immediately felt a loud whack on his head. When he looked up after that he noticed that Oscar now holds his cane in front of him. He must've struck him in the head.

'Please refrain from using such language...poor Oscar is still impressionable, you know.'

'Alright then...let's talk...' The Hexman said, breathing slightly heavily as he sat with Oscar on his bed.

After initially exchanging things they knew about each other, it was time for both Nick and Ozpin to ask questions.

'I've tried to warn your dad that his family could be in danger...but I'm afraid I do not know the identity of the people you're asking for...' He said with sadness after Nick described to him the night he witnessed his parents' murder.

'All I remember is their masks and weapons. One guy had two swords flying around him and one had a rapier...fought very similarly to dad...'

'Have you considered that the person who pierced your father's heart...you know...could've been one of yours?' Oscar asked with slight anxiety in his voice, but it wasn't nearly as big as in real Oscar's voice.

Nick, upon hearing that statement, stood up from the bed and looked at Oscar with visible anger.

'How dare you? A Hexman would never betray their own kin! It's completely preposterous!' He said, hardly containing himself.

'I understand you may not be able to accept it now. I am aware that your Brotherhood was a prideful group and that you live in conviction that you aren't like other humans. But that's exactly what makes you one...'

'And who are YOU to judge my family and friends?! My mother said YOU were the one who turned your back on us when we shared our concerns about the last council elections in Vale! Is this what your so-called "humanity" does? Because if so, then I'm glad I didn't take my view of the world after you!'

'Nicholas, I didn't mean to offend you...I was merely saying...'

But Oscar didn't finish his thought because Nick left the room and slammed the door behind him, making the farm boy shiver. After that he let out a glow and Oscar was back to being himself...

Nick didn't know where to go. There was still light in the corridor, but he assumed most people were already asleep so he just sat on the cold wooden floorboards. He wanted to wait for Oscar to fall asleep and then come back and get some shuteye. Some faint thoughts in his head were also telling him to take out the cigarettes from a forgotten pocket in his coat but he shook them off quickly. "I quit smoking for a reason, for crying out loud." He thought to himself.

It was in that moment that he heard footsteps going up the stairs. At first he wanted to get back up on his feet but he just stayed on the ground instead, seeing it wasn't Qrow that was going up the stairs. In fact, it was Ruby. And she saw Nick sitting there in just his red t-shirt and plain black boxers.

'You can laugh now. Most people do when they see that I have hairless legs.' Nick was still slightly irritated so he uttered that without even looking at the caped girl.

'I...don't really know what would be so funny about that.' The girl's squeaky voice responded and shortly after that she walked up to where Nick was and took a seat next to him.

'Did you know...who Oscar is?' He asked with a lump in his throat. Ruby's eyes widened.

'He...told you already?' She clearly seemed shocked.

'Told? He spoke to me. And I don't mean Oscar here. Said something about knowing my father, but it was clear to me that he has no idea about our ways...' Nick now seemed just upset.

'Funny you mention that...Yang and I knew two people who had the exact same mindset when we enrolled at Beacon...' Ruby tried to discreetly change the subject.

'Oh yeah?'

'Yeah, you know...the "YoU dOn'T kNoW wHo I aM" kind of person.' Ruby said that one part in a very comedic voice, even for her.

'Someone particularly obnoxious?' Nick was assuming again.

'Oh no, just a little...icy, if that makes sense. She was my teammate, Weiss Schnee.'

After that Nick decided to distract himself a little from the situation he had with Oscar and started asking Ruby questions about the teammate she mentioned. He learned that initially the girl Ruby would call Weiss was an unbearable snob because her family was big in Dust industry. Nick heard of the Schnees as well but didn't have any history with them so he decided to pretend he's ignorant instead.

'Oh, I think I still have a picture from that somewhere on my scroll!' Ruby said at some point and started tapping something on her scroll until she showed it to Nick. It was a photo taken on what appeared to be a reception. There were four people there, Nick recognized Yang and Ruby, the person not smiling next to her because of discomfort with pale blue eyes must've been that Schnee...

But there was also a fourth person on the photo, another girl. She was being hugged by Yang and was awkwardly smiling. She was fair-skinned with amber eyes and long wavy black hair. Something that immediately got Nick interested was a strange ribbon on her head, as if it was concealing two cat ears.

'Ruby...who is that? Next to Yang? Your final teammate?' He asked and pointed his finger where he meant to.

The silver eyed girl took away the scroll from Nick's face and after a short look at it she looked down on the floor, visibly upset.

'Yes...that's Blake...I think Yang would be angry if she knew we're talking about her...'

'Why is that? Something bad happened to her?' Nick was curious now as he wanted to know more about Yang.

'I don't know. After Beacon fell, she disappeared completely. Yang assumed she abandoned us...which is why she didn't even let me mention her name. Running away was...kind of her thing. But she was also Yang's partner, just like Weiss was mine...'

'Oh. I uhhhh...I see I shouldn't have pressed on...' Nick now felt bad.

'It's fine...Yang has you now. You seem to get along...and you also seem to be easy on the eyes...'

Nick blushed and gave Ruby a gentle punch in the shoulder for that. He really wasn't used to compliments. After that they shared a quiet laugh.

'I should get back. Try to get some sleep. I hope Oscar's asleep too.' Nick said in a more serious way after they stopped chuckling.

'Wait, I just remembered I need to ask you one last thing!' She said and grabbed Nick's wrist when he was already on his feet. Van Thorne responded by lifting her up from the ground so that she could stand on her feet as well.

'What is it? Make it quick.'

'What does the situation look like in Beacon? Why...why were you looking for me?' Ruby now seemed more anxious after asking that question.

'I read my share of folklore. I heard of warriors who could turn Grimm into stone with their gaze. But I didn't believe it until I saw that Wyvern on top of Beacon Tower. I know...this may sound burdening but...one day, I'd like you to come back with me there...and finish the job.'

What Nick said was very serious. Ruby looked away in anxiety but after biting her lower lip a few times she gave Van Thorne a small nod. Nick responded with the same gesture and wished Ruby goodnight. Once he was back in the room, Oscar was asleep. Happy about that, Nick got on his bed, covered himself in the sheets and rested his head on the pillow. He managed to fall asleep quickly...unlike Oscar, who actually heard snippets of the conversation his roommate had with Ruby.

The next morning Nick opened his eyes and what awaited him was the worst surprise imaginable. Oscar was nowhere to be seen in the room and right in front of him instead of the room's ceiling he saw a pair of giant purple eyes way too close to his face. Said eyes didn't belong to Yang, but to Tromberg, who was sitting on his chest in a very risqué position. She seemed proud of herself, unfortunately, as Nick desperately tried to keep his gaze on her eyes instead of...

'You're looking at them.' Tromberg said and chuckled in her usual sleazy way. That was a lie but Nick couldn't help but blush and get angry in return. He was about to start flailing his arms around to get the vice headmistress of Haven off his chest but the teacher predicted that and restrained his wrists with her grip.

'What do you want from me?!' Nick yelled almost loudly, panicked about the situation, but Tromberg let go of one of his wrists and put her finger on his lips.

'Shush...it wouldn't be good for you if one of the girls caught you now...'

After these words Tromberg let go of Nick's wrists and instead he could feel as her legs squeeze his chest slightly tighter. Thankfully, the vice headmistress wasn't trying to make it painful.

'I want many things from you, Van Thorne...but I'm afraid I can only ask you for one favor right now...' She said as she was running her finger down Nick's chin as if she was petting him like a cat.

'What...is it?' Nick asked with a slight difficulty in breathing. After these words Tromberg smiled widely and got off Nick's chest. As she was getting up from his bed, Nick accidentally noticed the panties she wore underneath her short gothic skirt and blushed.

'Hoh, I had a bad feeling you'd try to decline me. But alright, you didn't force my hands, so I can give you the briefing.' She said in a more professional tone as she was tapping something on her scroll. As she was doing that, Nick in a hurry put on his pants and boots. He would get the coat right before leaving the room.

'Take a look at these photos.' The purple haired woman said as she sat next to Nick on the bed.

What Nick saw on Tromberg's scroll were pictures of crime scenes where murders were committed. Most of the victims had either vertical cuts all over their bodies or a deep head wound that almost threatened to open their skulls, like from a particularly big axe. Nick couldn't help but cringe at some of the close-ups and so did Tromberg.

'These nasty murders took place in the lower district of the city in the past week. You may have noticed all the victims had the same tattoo near their shoulders, a cobweb with a spider inside.' The woman said.

'Gang members?'

'And worse...my informants on what's happening in Mistral's criminal underground. I need you to lure the killer or killers out, take pictures of them and return them to me.' Tromberg sounded serious.

'You want me to pose as a gang member for a crazed vigilante? You've seen the same pictures as me, you know how they ended...'

'Yes...and I even have my suspect already. Are you aware of the Wind Path bloodbath?'

Upon hearing that last question Nick's eyes went completely wide and he almost got himself up from the bed.

'Absolutely preposterous! There's no chance that these two cases could have the same killer!' He said really loud.

'Nevertheless, we need to make sure. Impossible things already happened on your journey here, haven't they? Like the fact that you brought with yourself a Beacon student who's officially presumed dead?' Tromberg sounded like she really hated the state of the case she presented to Nick.

'Don't drag Pyrrha into this. I'll do as you ask, I just need a disguise...'

'That I already thought of...' Tromberg said as she took out what appeared to be a traveling bag and started to unzip it with a mischievous smirk. The flirty teacher was back...

A couple of minutes later Nick was walking towards the exit of Haven academy. Tromberg only gave him a store brand revolver to protect himself. Near where the academy was ending and the city was starting he was bothered by a familiar figure.

'Hey Nick! I see you've gotten yourself an outfit change!'

It was Pyrrha. She was accompanied by Nora. Both the girls were carrying what appeared to be kitchen supplies.

'Why are you dressed like that? You look like a girl!' Nora said with her usual blunt tone, looking from behind the big paper bag she carried.

'Why were YOU in a shop on a Saturday?' Nick responded with a snarky question, angry that his disguise's baggy pants were hanging so low on his hips.

'We bought a couple of pastries and some cocoa powder, thought we could do a sweet tooth evening...' Pyrrha said with her usual awkward smile.

Nick was about to respond to the two but at the corner of his eye he noticed Tromberg passing through the courtyard from Haven tower.

'I'd love to, but let's do that once I return, okay? There's something I really need to get done!' He said and without saying goodbye ran off towards Mistral City.

'What was he hurrying so much for?' Nora asked the redhead. Pyrrha intensely stared at the disappearing Hexman.

'No idea. But something seems to trouble him...'

Nick managed to reach the city's sleazy underbelly. Keeping his hand close to the holster where the revolver from Tromberg was he was searching for a particular spot...

'All the murders happened in the vicinity of this Ramen Shop, right here. If there's any lead for you to start investigating, it's there.' He remembered the words the vice headmistress said.

'Why are you sending me?' Nick responded to that with a question.

'Because I need someone who doesn't have anything to do with Lionheart to do this task. That's all you need to know.' Tromberg responded in a surprisingly serious tone.

At some point Nick noticed the Ramen Shop from the map he saw. It had the characteristic sign saying "No faunus allowed" and at the corner of his eye the Hexman noticed a spider symbol carved into a nearby pillar. "Must be the place..." He thought to himself and took a turn into the alley with the Ramen Shop.

He decided to first enter the place in question. Right after he entered, the chef behind the counter got angry and started swinging his knife.

'I already paid the insurance fee for this month. Get the fuck out!' He yelled.

Nick didn't know why, but that man's voice somehow managed to really wind him up. And if there was anyone who deserved to be harassed with his non-existent gang member persona, it was him. So Nick pulled the revolver out of the holster and crossed his arms.

'I suggest you change your tone.' He said, trying to imitate Qrow's raspy voice. It seemed to work on the Ramen Shop owner.

Van Thorne took a seat on the bar stool near the counter. Next to him sat another patron, but he couldn't see their face. They were having their legs surprisingly high and were drinking what looked like a bottle of Sake.

'Get me a Soju bottle.' Nick said, still trying to sound like Qrow. The owner obliged, quickly poured Nick a shot and left the bottle. Nick quickly downed the shot and was starting to pour another one. He was nervous and he remembered that Soju was far more relaxing than the other patron's Sake.

'You know, you got a familiar voice. Had a guy here two days ago, was looking for Shiro Wan.' The Ramen Shop owner visibly changed his tone and tried to strike up a conversation now with the "gang member".

'The huntsman with gambling addiction?' Nick was informed enough to pass himself off as a fake gangster.

'Yeah, that one. The one that asked for him had the worst alcohol stench I ever felt in my nose.' The Owner cringed at that last statement.

After that all three people in the Ramen Shop sat silently. The unknown patron finished their Sake and stood up from the stool.

'Fufufufu...' Nick heard that shadowed figure's chuckle as it was leaving the building. It was a woman.

When the Hexman made sure he looked around enough, he downed the rest of the Soju bottle, left a 10 Lien bill on the Owner's counter and headed towards the exit as well.

Unfortunately, right after he opened the door he didn't see the other house that stood in front of the Ramen Shop but a giant black human shape and then a loud whack to his side that sent him flying into the nearby wall. Once the initial shock left him and he could finally see normally again, he saw in front of him a VERY tall man. Someone who could've been over 7 feet tall. He was wearing a robe mixed with armor pieces, mostly in black, red and gold and on his head was a mask of what seemed to be a lion face. In his hands he held a giant axe. A device like that could easily crack someone's skull in half, just like on the pictures Tromberg showed Nick. "So...this must be the killer. Seems like they took the bait quicker than I thought." The Hexman thought to himself and spun the revolver in his hand, getting ready to start shooting at the giant.

And so the killer did. He tried to get Nick by charging at him. But it wasn't a stupid bull's charge because when Nick dodged and thought the unknown assailant will hit the same wall as he hit, the giant turned unnaturally quickly in his direction and swung his axe with one hand, trying to get Nick with an overhead ground slam of his weapon. Nick dodged but wouldn't be able to dodge another tactic like that so he quickly aimed at the giant's heel and fired the revolver. It managed to hit a spot where the killer had his robe instead of armor and a small splash of blood came out.

' _PERKELE!'_ The killer suddenly yelled after hissing from pain. He had a very rough sounding voice...and that word shocked Nick.

'Hey, that's a North Gwynbleiddean swear word!' He said in his natural voice this time.

The killer looked at him from his slightly hunched over position and was about to get up...

When Nick barely dodged a blow that suddenly came at him from behind. This time, he noticed it to be a katana sword. And a very pretty one at that, similar to the one Hexmen from the Wolf School used in horseback combat. That gave Nick a strange thought...

' _Kuso Ttare!'_ A voice hissed after Nick's dodge. It was the very same woman whose giggle Nick heard in the Ramen Shop. The second killer was sitting RIGHT NEXT TO HIM.

She was wearing a leather vest on a red dress shirt with two additional leather straps encircling them diagonally in the chest area, slightly baggy brown pants and matching cuff boots with white heels. She was wearing a mask of what appeared to be a red panda. Nick slightly chuckled and was about to comment on the words the woman hissed...

But she instead unleashed a barrage of sword attacks, the likes of which Nick was shocked to experience. Some of them were slightly hitting him, thankfully only slashing the ugly purple disguise of a gang member, but most of them he was dodging. The shots from his revolver also didn't work as the woman seemed far too capable of deflecting the bullets. And worst of all, Nick didn't hear a single pant from her. He was starting to think he might recognize that move set.

'Whoa, whoa! Slow down a little there!' The giant suddenly said in a slightly more normal voice as the female killer's sword stopped near Nick's throat. When Van Thorne looked to his right, the male killer was unbuttoning his mask and took it off. He had a rather intimidating look about him, blue eyes complete with a scar running diagonally near one of them, raven black short hair and a messy stubble in matching color.

'Kyros, what the fuck are you doing?! Put that mask back on!' The female killer also said when she turned her sights at the giant with an axe.

'This guy recognized the swear word I was using. You said Gwynbleiddean is a dead language so nobody would assign us to a kingdom!'

'The hell you mean?! Who is this guy?'

'Wait, so you don't see him?'

'Barely. I told you I need a new mask, but noooo, "that red panda is cute". I wanted a panda BEAR mask, I thought I specified!' The female killer got so mad at her partner in crime she actually took the sword away from Nick's throat, tossed it to the ground and started angrily unbuttoning her mask as well. When she took it off, Nick felt yet another shock coming through his brain.

The woman had a head full of grey hair tied into a ponytail. You'd think someone like that would be old but there were just tiny bags under the female killer's eyes, nothing more. But what shocked Nick the most was the fact that the woman's big amber eyes...had narrow pupils, just like his. That only meant one thing for him. It was someone he actually knew, a Hexgirl.

'Miss Valery?' He asked, unable to believe his eyes. The woman rapidly turned her head at him and the moment their matching pupils met she was just as much in shock while giving the widest open mouth smile in the world.

'N...N...' She was stuttering, trying to point her shaking finger at Van Thorne. The man she called Kyros now plugged his ears with index fingers.

'Uhhhhh...' Nick gaped like a fish.

'NICHOLAAAAAAAS!'

The next thing Nick felt was someone lifting him up and practically crushing the absolute hell out of his backbones. The woman now was just letting out squeaks like a child as she was happily jumping in place with the full of pain Nick in her embrace. The Hexman had no doubt anymore. He just got reunited with Valery Var Vigo, his homeroom teacher from Gwynbleidd. To say she was eccentric would be the understatement of the century...

'Why are you dressed like a sad gang member?' Valery eventually asked, tugging a little bit on the pants of Nick's disguise. Kyros Leijona, whom she introduced as her partner, covered his eyes with the palm of his hand.

'To say it in your manner, I was sniffing around.' Nick said and crossed his arms.

'Eh? What for?' The grey haired woman seemed confused.

'Well, I was tasked to find those responsible for the recent deaths of gang members, that means you and chunky over there.' Nick said and pointed his thumb at Kyros. The giant immediately let out steam from his ears in anger.

'Seriously? Somebody is interested in the deaths of Lil Miss's thugs? Even she didn't give a shit when I was turning her men into sashimi. Who's the smartass to question my methods, huh?' Valery was sounding intimidating with her sword resting on her shoulders.

'Uhhhhh...Helga Tromberg?' Nick was a little creeped out, considering Valery's sword tricks were out of this world and she didn't even seem serious.

'Never heard that name before. Kyros, who dat?' She said rather nonchalantly.

'Lionheart's secretary. Accused of several romantic affairs with Haven students and huntsmen. Nothing proven though, she's clean.' Kyros responded seriously. Var Vigo rolled her eyes in response.

'Really? Someone like that sent my own family member after me? Starting to sound like Lil Miss isn't really the one killing all these huntsmen...'

Nick looked at his homeroom teacher with visible confusion. She gave him a non-verbal sign as if she was asking him to follow her.

Nick, Valery and Kyros entered a tiny Mistrali apartment together. The Hexgirl explained that she and her partner had been renting it for the past few weeks. They sat together by a tiny table. Of course, there were no chairs, instead on a regular tatami. Valery had the tendency of sitting with her legs crossed, while both Nick and Kyros sat casually, leaning on their hands.

'I'd offer you some tea but that can't be good for you after drinking an entire bottle of bootleg Sake.' She said with a small grin.

'It's fine. I see you still can't accept the fact that not everyone tries to copy your customs.' Nick responded as usual, toying a little with his pouty teacher.

After that initial banter Valery explained the situation to Nick. She said that the actual reason she and Kyros were killing gang members was because in recent months there has been a lot of contract killers flying into Mistral. She was making a particularly big deal out of some contract killer with a reinforced umbrella. And, according to Kyros's intel, the ONLY gang who was actually seen interacting with said assassins was one led by someone called "Lil Miss Malachite", recognizable by spider tattoos near shoulders and purple scarves. Ever since the gang hired the assassins, there were numerous disappearances of huntsmen on missions. Traces of disappearances led Valery into two suspects, Malachite's gang...and Haven. Valery believes there might be a connection between the two.

'My main suspect in Haven is Lionheart. He hasn't been out of Haven Tower since the events of last Vytal. But if someone were to have intel on him regarding the disappearances of these huntsmen, it would be Malachite. We were planning to kill enough gang members in order to lure spider momma out and interrogate her. Old Leo, after all, has a file on him in Mistral's police department, regarding arsons on businesses that wouldn't serve the Faunus. But now that you and Kyros brought up that lusty secretary of his...' Valery seemed deep in thought.

'Makes sense...Tromberg did mention that the gang members you killed were her "informants". But that could also mean she's conducting an investigation of her own. From what you said, Lionheart is a suspicion magnet, probably even bigger than whatever Hopsnatch is up to these days...' Nick added.

'Well, if it is true and Malachite has nothing to do with the disappearances we still managed to free a couple of Mistralians from extortion AND gave a gang boss free staff cuts.' Kyros said and smirked.

'Hopsnatch...haven't heard that name in years...' Valery said silently to herself, closing her eyes.

'Well, I'll be off now. I won't tell Tromberg you were the killers...I'll just tell her about the masks so that she doesn't suspect me.' Nick said as he was getting up from the tatami.

'Please tell her my mask was a panda bear, not whatever a "red panda" is.' Valery said with slight embarrassment.

When Nick was about to open the sliding door to his teacher's apartment, he heard her calling him one last time behind him.

'Nick...I meant it when I said I'm glad to see you again.' She said after Nick turned around one last time. This time, a genuine warm smile formed on her face. Valery may have been eccentric and a Hexgirl so dangerous even fellow Brotherhood members would tell her to "chill", but deep down she had that Hexman nobility and selflessness that Nick remembered all his comrades to have, especially his dad...

And after a last warm hug from the tiny (4 feet 8 inches) grey haired woman, Nick left the apartment and was heading back to Haven. He looked at his scroll and noticed a characteristic notification. Valery must've exchanged her number with his. There was also a third scroll number, presumably Kyros's.

When Nick landed back at Haven, he did his best to not be seen by anyone on the courtyard. He ran into the dorm he shared with the rest of the group, quickly entered his room and started changing from the disguise he was wearing. When he was struggling with putting on his pants, the door to his and Oscar's room opened and Nick panicked so much he lost balance and fell flat on his ass, with his pants still not entirely pulled up.

'I'm so sorry! Are you hurt?'

It was Pyrrha...again. Nick could see that she was prepared to head out as her weapons were strapped on her back.

'Nah, I think I'm good.' Nick said with a slight whimper as he finished dressing up. When he turned to face Pyrrha he was correcting the sleeves of his coat, its concealed gears still clicking like new.

'Nick, when you were gone Ruby's uncle had us gathered. He said we need to head to Haven's Grand Hall this evening, but didn't specify why. Just...said to bring weapons.' After those last words Nikos sat on Van Thorne's bed and nervously rubbed her left wrist without looking at him.

'You sound anxious.' The Hexman said as he took a seat next to her. Pyrrha nodded in response.

'I am...scared. I can tell you that because you know how I...returned. I feel this shiver running down my back, the same one that I had when HE...' She didn't finish, but that last word she said with a very shaky voice...

'Pyrrha, you have your team. This time, you will not be alone if it comes to a fight. And I also know you're capable of defending yourself well without a weapon.' Nick said and smiled, just as genuinely as Valery when she was seeing him off.

'I...guess you're right. Although I have a feeling that only Nora and Ren really are backing me up. Jaune, he...seemed to have grown more distant...' Pyrrha still didn't look at Nick.

'He's still shocked. Give him time...after all, it seems like you were already mourned before. I'll talk to him if he's grumpy for too long.' Nick said and chuckled. But Pyrrha didn't share his positivity. Instead she stared blankly at the door to Van Thorne's room in Haven. After coming to a conclusion that his mysterious friend could leave any moment now, Nick gently put his hand around Pyrrha's shoulder, trying to comfort her. She responded by gently resting her head on his shoulder.

'I'm...sorry for seeming so cold. I hope you're not gonna think less of me because of this.' She said, slowly relaxing while it was Nick's turn to become tense from the awkwardness of the situation.

'No, not at all. You're...a good friend to me.' He said with a shaky voice.

'I feel the same.' Pyrrha responded, closed her eyes and smiled.

A little later everyone was gathering in the Haven courtyard. Nick, Yang, Ruby, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, Jaune, Oscar and Qrow were all armed and heading towards the Grand Hall. Nick was anxious to go inside but followed everyone slowly, keeping himself rather in the back. He took a last look at Haven courtyard, for a split second thinking he heard footsteps. But instead, he proceeded inside.

As the gang was walking forward, they all saw a figure standing at the top of the staircase that was spreading at the end of the corridor in front of them from both left and right. It was, in fact, the headmaster of Haven, Leonardo Lionheart. He was a middle-aged man with a mane of tan/gray hair and a beard. He had a tanned complexion with brown eyebrows and dark brown eyes. Nick could also see that he was a Faunus as a tufted lion's tail was wagging nervously behind him. He was wearing a white dress shirt with a brown vest over it, dark brown slacks and dress shoes.

'Why hello. Thank you for uhhh...coming.' He said with a slight stutter. His voice was deep but he didn't seem to use it properly as he was coming off as nervous. It was then that he noticed Nick...and he got even more confused. 'There...seems to be more of you than last time.' He added.

'Eh, you know what they say, the more the merrier. So what's going on with the council?' Qrow responded with his usual raspy voice. Nick rolled his eyes at how cheap the huntsman's expression sounded and at the thought of how loud Valery would laugh at that.

'Why...did you bring your weapons?' Lionheart nervously asked. Nick frowned, seeing as the headmaster of Haven had a gauntlet on one of his wrists with what looked like a retractable shield in the form of a four-legged star.

'Why did you bring yours?' Nick butted in on Qrow's conversation and crossed his arms. Upon hearing his words, Lionheart nervously put both his hands behind his back and started looking around.

As the huntsman was talking to the headmaster with tension and suspicion growing between them, Nick's gaze wandered off to meet Yang's. But when he finally located the blonde girl, she was looking around as well. He curiously followed where she was looking...and his eyes suddenly got wider.

Nick and Yang were both looking at the same balcony one floor above where they were standing in the Grand Hall. There was...a corvid bird sitting on the balcony's barrier. A big, black, creepy bird with seemingly dead red eyes rapidly moving its head from left to right, eyeing its surroundings and eventually meeting its gaze with Nick's and Yang's. Somehow that made Nick even more suspicious. But what followed shocked him even more...

'Mom?' Yang asked, seemingly into nothingness. Lionheart gasped and looked at the exact same direction the blonde girl was looking.

Hearing those words, the bird spread its wings and jumped off the barrier, gliding towards Lionheart surprisingly quickly. Once it was behind the headmaster a strange sound could be heard and then...a human person walked out from behind him, as if it was his shadow. That person was wearing a mask of a Nevermore Grimm. Nick straightened his hand, readying the gear in his coat to fetch him either the gun or the sword.

The person took off the mask. Ruby and Nora were saying something but Nick got way too focused on the figure that just materialized seemingly out of nowhere to listen to them. As it turned out...it was a woman. She had long jet black hair, light complexion, bright red eyes and slight age lines under them. Nick also barely noticed a red bandanna in her hair, loosely attempting to make a ponytail. Her outfit consisted of a shallow cut black and red dress with black shorts underneath, with series of beaded necklaces and a belt that wrapped around her waist and carried her weapon's sheath (ironically, it seemed to be a sword very similar to the ones Valery carried). Her forearms were bearing red armored gauntlets that protruded outwards and solid black gloves. Lastly, she was wearing black mid-thigh high leggings with red splatter patterns and black heels. Initially Nick thought she looked quite pretty despite the age lines. But then he remembered what Yang said...and started noticing the resemblance. It shocked him greatly, but he somehow couldn't stop his hand from preparing to eject one of his handguns.

'If you're going to shoot me, shoot me. That was insulting.' Those were her first words as she was slightly shaking her hair after taking off her mask. Nick didn't know why yet, but he found that offer quite tempting.

'What are YOU doing here?!' Qrow said particularly angrily, as one of his hands was grabbing the sword strapped on his back. Looking at that, Nick had no doubt that this woman could be very dangerous.

'I could ask you the same thing. You've been scheming, little brother. Planning to attack your own sister.' The woman responded with a devious smirk as she was walking down the stairs at the Grand Hall.

'Leo, what have you done?!' Qrow sounded distraught as he turned his sights at the headmaster of Haven. It was clear now that somehow Lionheart betrayed the trust of the people that were in his academy. Nick now was sure that Valery's suspicions about him weren't just allegations.

It was then that he noticed the unknown woman staring directly at him, frowning. But she quickly returned her sights at the man she called her brother and explained how Lionheart supposedly "made his choice". Van Thorne couldn't help but think that either she was really intimidating or Leo was just a complete coward despite being a lion Faunus. When the unknown woman finished her thought she looked at Yang with the exact same frown that she looked at Nick with for a split second. Yang responded by clenching her fists and changing her position into one more ready to fight.

Qrow carefully chose his words but was still talking to the unknown woman. Suddenly, during the exchange between them, a memory triggered in Nick's head. Yet again, it was his talk with Taiyang Xiao Long...

" _It was Raven's brother who found you in that shed. We wanted to rescue you, but Raven threatened to finish you off if we tried..."_

It...really was Raven Branwen. Right in front of Nick stood the woman, who was the complete opposite of Summer Rose. Because of that woman, Nick couldn't count on a normal life after the night of the raid. Because of that woman Taiyang and probably Qrow deep inside had regrets about that day. Because of that woman Lionheart may have betrayed the people that trusted him until then. And now...that very woman was standing mere 3-4 feet away from him...

Nick could feel as unthinkable anger breaks out inside him. He could hardly keep it in as his breath got faster, he clenched his teeth to the point his jaw started to hurt a little and he was slowly making the gesture that would eject one of his guns. The weapon's barrel was already becoming visible. Pyrrha, Nora and Ren noticed Nick's state which without context looked like he was just preparing to surprise attack Raven. She was still yapping about her survivalist mentality, arguing with Qrow...until Nick couldn't take it anymore.

BAM! A loud sound echoed throughout the Grand Hall and everyone fell silent. All eyes were on Nick, but he was just pointing his gun at the ceiling. It was a warning shot to shut everyone up.

'Would you kindly just shut the fuck up for a moment?' Nick could feel his over-the-top combat behavior getting the best of him, but something was different. As if in addition to it there was more rage. After saying that Nick walked forward, rudely pushed Qrow to the side and pointed his gun forward, right at Raven's forehead. The woman in response just gave Nick another one of her frowns.

'I'd like to take you up on that shooting offer...bitch.' The word Nick ended that thought with sounded particularly ugly from his lips. Everyone behind looked at him, probably thinking what he was doing was insane, especially Yang and Qrow. Raven, on the other hand, smirked and walked up even closer to the gun barrel staring at her.

'You've got nerve, kid. Nobody who called me the B word was strong enough to keep up their statement. But you...you've said it quite convincingly...and your hand isn't even shaking...' As if to mock him, Raven gently touched Nick's wrist and confirmed that indeed, his hand was steady.

'Nick...what...are you doing?' Ruby said with a bit of fear in her voice. Van Thorne didn't look at the silver eyed girl. Instead he continued what he was going to tell the woman in front of him.

'You remember me, don't you? You and your brother over there...remember 3 years ago, when you tried to reunite your team and went on a mission to Gwynbleidd?' Nick said, hardly containing a crazed out laugh.

In response Raven made a shocked face and so did Qrow.

'You...you're the...' The drunken huntsman was stuttering.

'Yes. I didn't want to tell you because you kept saying Hexmen never existed...I guess it's a surprise.' Nick said without taking his eyes off Raven.

But then the woman turned into a bird again. Nick didn't see the transformation, he just blinked and she already turned. He was about to fire the gun, but Raven was quicker and she turned back into a human right in front of a strange statue sculpted onto the place where Lionheart stood.

'You should've pulled the trigger.' She said and in what seemed to be light speed she drew the sword she had strapped to her the entire time and slashed it seemingly in the air. But where she made the cut a glowing red and black pulsing orb showed up and all of a sudden a fireball launched out of it and hit Ruby. Yang immediately ran up to help her. At first Nick thought it was some kind of way of utilizing fire Dust but then from that very orb...more people even more dangerously looking than Raven came out of. It was a portal.

The very first person Nick noticed was a very creepy looking woman with fair skin, short ashen-black hair covering her left eye while the visible one was amber. There was a very ugly X-shaped scar on her face that extended over the bridge of her nose. Following the scar with his eyes, Nick could see what appeared to be a black glass mask on the eye covered by her hair. She was wearing a long, dark red dress with one long, wide sleeve hiding her left arm. The right side of her dress was open from the hip down and Nick could see black pantyhose there. On her right arm, she was wearing a long, gray glove, the top of which had a gold-colored metal ring with curvy branching extensions going up her arm and on the one ear Nick could see she had an earring.

'Hello, boys and girls.' She said with a very seductive and very unsettling voice while an evil smile wasn't trying to leave her lips.

She was accompanied by three people, two women and a guy. One of the females had medium-brown skin, dark-red eyes and mint-green hair, the other had tan-colored skin, short brown hair and icy blue eyes. The guy was pale with gray eyes and matching hair.

Nick's attention mostly focused on the creepy woman with the scar but he couldn't help but also look at the short-haired woman as she seemed to be pulling on something that must've been on the other side of the portal.

'Cinder...' Ruby hissed from the ground as Yang was helping her get up. Nick remembered that name, Yang mentioned it when Pyrrha and him traveled to Anima. It was the woman responsible for Pyrrha's current trauma. Nick hid the gun he had back in his sleeve and grabbed a hold of one of his swords. His fury was now gone, replaced by shock and eagerness to show these people he could easily put them in graves.

'Come on guys, is that any way, is that any way to greet your old friends?' The gray haired guy asked and smirked. But unlike in Raven's case, his smirk only made Nick want to punch him.

'Yeah uhhhhh...who are you again?' Van Thorne asked, yet again completely interrupting the tension between his companions facing old...enemies, actually.

The brown-skinned girl, the scarred woman and the gray haired guy looked in Nick's direction. They seemed to be forming a trio, but while the girl and the guy looked at Van Thorne with anger and disgust, the one called Cinder made the creepiest grin Nick has ever seen anyone do.

'Well, would you look at that...yet another poor soul to drag to the bottom with you, Ruby?' Cinder seemed to have a particular grudge at the silver eyed girl. In response to that statement, Qrow decided to interfere.

'Everybody stay calm!' He said, naively thinking that would work.

At that moment the door to Haven's Grand Hall opened. Everybody instinctively turned around, with the exception of Nick only turning his head.

Yet another adversary as it seemed, a man has entered the building. It was a tall and muscular middle-aged man with short brown hair, a beard, and hazel eyes. He was wearing a two-tone olive green coat over a black 3/4 sleeve shirt, and a large belt. His pants were black, with a pouch strapped to each pants leg, and his boots were brown with white fronts. His hairy arms had some scars near the edges of his sleeves. When everyone turned to face him, he was already closing the door to the Grand Hall.

'Oh no...' Oscar said, clearly shocked and terrified.

'The White Fang is prepping demolition and securing the school grounds. No one's getting in, and no one's getting out.' The newcomer said in a voice that could only be described as pure intimidation.

'Oh, fucking great! We're dragging mentally challenged Faunus into this, as if we didn't have one already! Just wonderfuckingful!' Nick got angry again because he hated dealing with the White Fang in his years before running into his aunt. As he was yelling in reaction to the newest adversary he pointed his finger at Lionheart. That somehow made Cinder and the girl that was with her chuckle.

'Nick, what is wrong with you?!' The so far silent Ren got fed up with Van Thorne's comments.

'He's in his battle attitude. Don't pay attention.' Pyrrha whispered to the brunette guy.

'Raven, how long have you been with them?' Qrow asked his sister, seemingly disgusted.

'Aww, don't take it personally, little bird. Your sister was a recent addition. The...heh..."mentally challenged" lion on the other hand...entrance into the Vytal Festival was a real treat, but Leonardo's been sending Salem all sorts of information for a very, VERY long time. Isn't that right, Professor?' Cinder said, pissing Nick off because she stole his joke. He didn't even listen to what Lionheart had to say, his expression and silence were already proof enough that Valery's deduction skills were on point. And he didn't even care that Qrow was just realizing all that. That it was Lionheart who's responsible for disappearances of Mistrali huntsmen and huntresses. But it still was intriguing for him who was Qrow referring to as "her". He did, however, hear Cinder's comment after Qrow finished telling Leonardo what he thinks of him.

'Aw now, don't beat yourself up about it Lionheart, I'm sure Tyrian and Hazel would've found them on their own eventually.' She said and smirked yet again.

It was time for Nick to use his deduction skills. He heard Cinder utter the name "Hazel" and then turned around. The intimidating muscular man was walking up to where everyone was standing. "THAT must be Hazel...the eye color matches..." He thought to himself. He wasn't going to interrupt anyone's exchange anymore because it started to bore him.

'What is wrong with you?' Yet another silent up to this point voice asked, this time Jaune's. Nick was about to go "Hey, wasn't me this time!" but then he realized Jaune was actually saying that to Cinder. He was looking down on the ground and it seemed like tears were running down his cheeks.

'How can you be so broken inside...to take so many lives, and then come here and rub it in our faces like it's something to be proud of?! All with that DAMN SMILE ON YOUR FACE?!' He added, yelling out the last part with a shaky voice.

'Jaune...' Nora said.

'Language!' Nick said as he rose up from behind her...and got punched in the nose for that. Didn't hurt too much but he had to back off. He realized he went waaaayyy too overboard with his other attitude and shook it off.

When Nick was dealing with the pain in his nose he wasn't listening to the rest of Jaune's crying and screaming, Qrow trying to STILL calm everyone down and everyone else readying weapons.

'Who are you again?' Cinder nonchalantly said, stealing another joke from Nick.

It was then that Jaune snapped, drew his sword and charged at the woman he just yelled at. But Cinder just casually conjured up a sword with fiery elements in it and blocked his blow. Ruby tried to go and help the blonde guy but when she jumped with what appeared to be a giant scythe, a chain wrapped around her and tossed her to the ground.

'You're not getting near her.' The brown-skinned girl that assisted Cinder said with a devious smirk poorly imitating her mistress.

And so everything went south. The battle at Haven began properly. Jaune was trying to get a hit on Cinder, her assistant was fighting Ruby and Yang while trying to help her sister ran into the gray haired guy.

'Hey there, blondie. I'm thinking you owe me an apology for my leg, don't you think?' He said. Nick heard that and wanted to help Yang but...something else caught his attention in the midst of all that battle. In the meantime Raven crossed swords with her brother, Oscar ran up the stairs to confront Lionheart and Nora and Ren readied themselves to fight Hazel, who didn't ready any weapon.

Nick was actually chasing after the other girl that came with Cinder, the one with the short hair. She snuck away when Hazel entered the Grand Hall and was now dragging something behind the staircase. That's where Nick cornered her and realized she...was dragging another person with her. Someone Nick didn't even notice up until then. It was a girl with pale skin, long white hair tied into a ponytail, eyes very similar to the short haired girl holding her hostage and a faint scar down her left eye.

'Where do you think you're going? The party's only getting started!' He said, completely ignoring the hostage.

'Just stop talking. Will you ever shut up?' The short haired girl responded.

'You let Weiss Schnee over here go and maybe I will, shorty.' Nick responded and swung his sword a little.

'The name's Vernal, dumbass...Alright, fine. She won't make it out alive anyway.' The short haired girl responded and did as she said. The white haired girl ran off towards where Nick was. It was then that Van Thorne noticed that near Vernal there was a torn piece of rope, as if somebody actually bit it.

When Weiss was near the Hexman she pointed what appeared to be a bizarre rapier at him.

'How do you know my name?' She asked with slight irritation in her eyes.

'WHAT?!' Vernal was desperately searching her pockets, presumably thinking she had the weapon Weiss was now pointing at Nick.

'Your friend told me about you. But...I think we should discuss that later. Put that toothpick away from my face...and point it there!' Nick said and moved Weiss's blade with his finger towards where Vernal was. She was now readying two weapons that looked like guns strapped between crab pinchers.

'Hey, Vernal...didn't know allergy pills like to fight with crab limbs!' He said and winked at Weiss. She somehow knew how to read that sign. There was something about Nick that...reminded her of William.

'Uuuuuuuugh! You said you'll shut up!' Vernal was getting more annoyed and panicked.

'What can I say? I'm full of surprises. Now!' Nick said and a white glyph appeared under his feet. He and Weiss were ready to kick Vernal's skinny ass...

As that was happening Lionheart and Oscar were fighting on top of the staircase while close to them Ruby was still trying to hit the brown-skinned girl. But the one who seemed to struggle the most was actually Jaune. Cinder wasn't even treating him seriously, just slightly raising her hand to block his upcoming predictable sword attacks. Nobody's fight seemed like they had the upper hand, except for Oscar. And soon Nick and Weiss realized that riling Vernal up so much could prove to be fatal for them...

'Fucking crab limbs!' Nick yelled as Vernal was tossing her gun pinchers at him like boomerangs. Meanwhile behind him Weiss was trying to summon her glyphs on different surfaces to change the trajectory of the enemy's weapons. Vernal wasn't nearly as amateurish as she seemed at first.

'You got that summon complete yet?' Nick nervously said, deflecting another blow from the projectiles coming at him.

'Shut up and let me concentrate!' Weiss sounded tired. Being locked up in Branwen Tribe's camp did that to her. Nick took the hint and dashed forward in order to surprise Vernal. She raised her two weapons up and they clashed with Nick's sword.

'Hey, would you look at that! I finally got closer to a girl!' Nick cracked a joke as he was withstanding not just the weapons emitting sparks from his sword but also Vernal's bloodthirsty look.

'It will be...the last thing you'll ever see, Hexman!' The short-haired warrior responded and gritted her teeth.

'I know it's nothing serious just yet, but in case we ever start dating...I'm not buying us matching t-shirts!' Nick responded and grinned, still not satisfied with Vernal's anger. That...was a mistake. Because Vernal then started cackling like a maniac. That threw Nick off guard so he stopped the sword clash and jumped back. Weiss was almost done summoning what appeared to be the very same looking knight as the one she summoned in her room. The same one William and Klein saw with their own eyes.

'You know...I didn't have this much fun fighting in years. You were a good sport, Hexman...and I truly mean that you were...' Vernal said and pointed one of her weapons forward as if she wanted to fire the gun in it.

'Yes yes yes! Almost done!' Weiss was filled with joy, not paying attention to Nick's scuffle with Vernal...

And then the weapon fired. They were lasers. Nick thought he could deflect them like regular projectiles as Vernal did fire her weapon before. But an unspeakable shock came onto his lips as the lasers seemed to bounce off his blade and shoot themselves just at the right angle between his legs to hit Weiss in the hip. Nick immediately turned around and he saw her scream in pain as a pale blue glow started flickering on her. That was a really bad sign...

'No...No, no nonononononono...' Nick dropped his sword and now had both his hands on his head as he was slowly backing away from Weiss, who was now looking almost completely defeated. Vernal was cackling. She was victorious. The tables have turned on Nick...

Jaune looked in the direction from which Weiss's scream came. His opponent did the same.

'Are you going to let her die too?' Cinder said in a very malicious tone with her usual smirk. Jaune still had tears on his cheeks. Vernal was still cackling, making Raven a little irritated, considering Nick was still on his feet. But for Vernal the fight was over as Nick seemed like he couldn't handle someone getting hurt even more than Jaune. It was then that the blonde boy realized...everything Nick said to Cinder, the swear words, the horrible taunts...they were all a facade.

'Stop messing with me!' Jaune yelled at Cinder. He may have realized the truth about Nick, but he still didn't realize his own.

'If that's what you want...' Cinder responded with a chuckle and the sword in her hand broke like it was made of glass, revealing beneath it a pure flame resembling the shape of a sword.

When Cinder and Jaune dashed at each other, Ruby turned to notice them right away. So did Nick...and the flame shape Cinder was holding made him very confused.

'Nooooooooooo!' Ruby yelled when Nick's eyes managed to catch her. A blinding flash exploded from her for a split second until when Nick could see anything again he saw the mint-green girl standing above Ruby who was down on the ground. Nick realized that Ruby used her eyes and couldn't control them. And that the unknown girl managed to knock her out...

But what was even more confusing was when Cinder suddenly groaned in pain and had to kneel on one knee. She grabbed onto her arm covered behind the oversized sleeve of her dress. Jaune used that opportunity and plunged his soul right in the direction of her head, but she dodged at the last moment and the blonde boy only managed to chip off a tiny piece of the black glass from her mask. After that tiny victory Cinder had already dodged away from her opponent and Jaune lost his balance and fell on the ground. When she looked back up again after that dodge there were flames coming from her visible eye. Nick quickly made a gesture with his hand and readied his handgun. He was locking onto Cinder but his hand was now shaking too much. The scarred woman managed to angrily walk up to Jaune, who was struggling to get up from the ground, and violently stomp on his armored chest with her black heel.

'Did you think you actually had a chance against ME?! YOU?! You're just a failure with a death wish!' Cinder lost her temper and was now yelling at the guy who was down.

'Come on, come on...don't do this to me...' Nick said with a shaky voice as he was trying to keep his handgun steady by grabbing onto his wrist with his free hand. Jaune actually had the strength to talk back at Cinder as she was observing others fight, still holding her heel on the blonde boy's chest.

But when she let go of him, Nick was now shocked to see that she was looking directly at Weiss, whom Vernal tossed like she was nothing, foolishly no longer considering Nick a threat. A fiery spear materialized in Cinder's hand, Weiss was hardly able to get on her knees from the ground. It was then that Nick realized what Cinder was about to do. He looked with anxiety at unconscious Ruby and her words about Weiss being her partner...and the photo she showed him. To Ruby, Weiss was like someone they could always confide in. Just like Nick had a friend...back at Gwynbleidd...until he never found him again after that night...

He wasn't going to let Weiss die.

With Jaune's final "No!" Cinder chucked the fiery spear, aiming it right at Weiss's lower back. But to her shock someone jumped right where she was, pushing her away at the last minute. It was Nick, the "another poor soul" as she referred to him. Her eye went wide and her mouth opened.

The spear went right through Nick's abdomen and pulled him with itself right at the nearby wall. It lodged itself into the wall. Nick blankly stared at it with a sad smile...and remembered the words of his friend back from Gwynbleidd, when he still was ridiculed for looking like a girl and didn't see a way for himself to escape the bullying...

" _Please, Nick...always say "See you later" before we separate...otherwise, we may never meet again..."_

After these words echoed in his ears and everyone in the Grand Hall noticed the Hexman impaled against the wall, Nick could still faintly see as the spear in his body slowly dissolves into what looked like embers. It reminded him of when a Grimm dies.

'You...fucking...asshole...' He said with his last breaths to himself, thinking about that friend...

And then he passed out and his seemingly lifeless body hit the ground with a deaf thud.


	11. The Confrontation

'Weiss!'

Jaune ran up to where the white haired girl was lying on the floor, slightly whimpering from the pain of Vernal's laser that hit her. Ren accompanied him as they both were helping the girl up...

In the meantime Pyrrha, who finally managed to overcome her irrational fear of Cinder after assisting almost everyone in their fight, ran up to Nick, who was lying on the ground face down and blood was flowing onto the floor from his abdominal wound.

'She's fine! Get over here instead, damnit!' Pyrrha yelled as she felt tears forming in her eyes. She had no problems lifting Nick up from the ground and trying to place him so that he leans on the wall he hit when the spear pierced him. The brunette guy obliged first, Jaune soon followed him.

Cinder was looking at all that from a distance and the flame in her one visible eye burned even brighter upon the sight of Pyrrha. She looked to her right, where the brown-skinned girl stood.

'Emerald...are you playing tricks on my head with your semblance?' She asked menacingly.

The girl Cinder called by the name "Emerald" shook her head, seemingly just as shocked as she was.

'I have no idea how that is possible. If we were still in Vale, I'd think this is Neo's semblance instead...but she wouldn't be speaking, would she?' The girl asked Cinder.

'Of course she wouldn't...We'll have to ask the relic that question. Make sure to keep Ruby alive. I can't wait to see what tricks two Maiden powers could do with her...' Cinder smirked and the flame in her eye stopped.

Oscar was observing all the commotion from atop the staircase. Seeing Ruby still unconscious and Nick losing so much blood somehow managed to infuriate him greatly. With a loud scream he swung his cane and hit Lionheart in the head so hard the cowardly headmaster tumbled down the staircase and crashed directly into Hazel who was trying to sneak up on Oscar after Ren and Nora focused on the fatally wounded Hexman. Afterwards, the farm boy jumped down the stairs and ran up to Ruby, trying to wake her up. Nora joined him while Yang was busy with the gray haired guy.

Hazel walked up to Lionheart, grabbed him by the edge of his shirt and violently pulled him up close to his face.

'First you let a Hexman into your academy...and now you're letting that boy make a fool of you.' Hazel sounded disappointed.

'That's not just a boy! It's Ozpin! He's already reincarnated!' Lionheart said with an even more nervous voice than before. Upon hearing that, Hazel frowned and dropped the headmaster onto the ground. He turned his sights at Oscar, still trying to wake Ruby up. Upon noticing the characteristic cane...something started to snap in him.

'Ozpin?' He repeated to himself and felt as his anger is becoming immeasurable. He had a grudge against the Beacon headmaster...just like Nick had against Raven.

Ruby was just opening her eyes when Oscar heard a loud voice call him out.

'OZPIN!' Hazel's cold exterior was completely gone, now all that could be seen was that very intimidating man almost salivating from rage.

Somehow that scream managed to wake Nick up, but his vision was way too blurry to recognize any of the shapes around him. Well, that and he still felt the blood leaving his body. Some of his limbs were beginning to feel colder.

'You thought you could hide from ME?!' Hazel added to his rage as he was tearing off his coat and taking out two pairs of lightning Dust crystals from his pouches.

'You'll pay for what you did, you'll die over and OVER again!' After these words Hazel did something so crazy Nick couldn't believe his blurry vision. It seemed like the muscular man stabbed himself with the crystals and his scars were lighting up in bright yellow lights. He charged at Oscar with a creepily distorted voice, but at the last minute Qrow managed to push him away and dodge the blow. He changed his sword into a scythe and prepared to take on the rampaging Dust battery that was Hazel.

'Ozpin is here?!' Cinder seemed genuinely shocked as she was approaching the strange statue of Haven's Grand Hall's staircase. Vernal and Raven were accompanying her instead of Emerald.

After assuring Raven that Ozpin's presence doesn't change anything, Cinder called Lionheart (who was still cowering on the ground) to "open the vault". Leo seemed to know what she meant because he nodded in response and quickly ran up to the statue. He took out his pocket watch and put it in a hole of the statue's ornament. After hearing a few clicks, the statue lowered, revealing itself to actually be an elevator.

Yang was erratically looking around. In her anger she couldn't make out most of the shapes in the Hall and had problems noticing her companion lying on the ground with Jaune, Ren and Pyrrha trying to desperately keep him alive. But she could notice her mum and Cinder getting on the elevator's platform. She needed answers from her as it turned out her fate was just as tied to Nick's as Yang's.

'Stop them! We've got your team covered!' Nora yelled from where she was looking after Ruby.

But when Yang wanted to go after Raven, she felt a kick to her head and went down on her knees.

'You wanna get to them? You're going to have to get through ALL of us.' Emerald said from above Yang. After that it seemed like the gray haired guy was multiplying and surrounding the blonde girl. But in reality, that was Emerald's semblance, which was messing with one individual target's head in order for them to fail taking a shot at her.

'Ren, talk to me!' Jaune was panicking, holding onto Nick's abdominal wound, blood gushing through his gauntlets. Ren was holding onto Nick's wrist and Pyrrha was from time to time giving him a gentle slap on the cheek to keep him from passing out again.

'This is really bad...and...this rippling...' Ren said, fear steadily growing in him as he felt unknown rippling in Nick's pulse in addition to his blood flow. It certainly didn't feel like aura.

'It's...too late...you have to...decapitate me...' Nick managed to utter faintly as he was coughing up blood.

'Nonononono, you are NOT dying on me! We can't lose anyone else!' Jaune stuttered silently and closed his eyes. His last sentence made Pyrrha upset but she was too focused to dwell on her teammate's words.

'If you don't...he'll...BLARGH!' Nick tried to say something more to Jaune but he got suddenly interrupted and let out an inhuman gargling noise. Didn't sound like him succumbing to his wounds yet, but it startled all three of the people that were with him as Nick's eyes for a split second turned red.

'This rippling...it's a Grimm. It's taking him over...' Ren said with a highly gloomy voice and looked with sadness at the Hexman's wound. As that was happening Cinder, Vernal and Raven were stepping on the elevator's platform and Oscar this time tried his best to keep Hazel's fist away from him. Ozpin was talking to him, trying to convince him to hand the control over to him...but unlike in Nick's case, Ozpin was actually suggesting something reasonable. Van Thorne could faintly see as Oscar tries to reason with Hazel...and eventually a faint glow indicating that Ozpin took over.

'He's breathing way too rapidly...Jaune, we have to fulfill his wish...' Ren said with an even sadder tone to the blonde boy.

'No, I cannot accept this!' This time it was Pyrrha who yelled in anguish with tears in her eyes. At that moment it seemed like Jaune finally noticed that she's there as well. And when Nikos accidentally touched her teammate's face with her hair...

A white glow came out of Jaune's hands and right into Nick's body. The flickering glow showed up, indicating there was still some of Nick's aura in there, but Van Thorne's natural golden aura was intertwining with some resilient red lights trying to go up to his head. Nick's aura was battling the Grimm...and it was Jaune who seemed to be saving him.

'NGH!' Yet another inhuman sound left Nick's mouth and the red lights grew bigger. Ren knew he had to do something. He gently touched the Hexman's shoulder...and as if automatically, his semblance activated and surrounded him and Nick in a silver force field, switching off both of their emotions. Pyrrha watched in shock and was still holding onto Nick's head, making sure his eyes don't turn red again. Nick suddenly let out a loud breath and when he for a short time opened his eyes, they were back to his natural pale green color. Ren switched off his semblance. The red lights were gone from Nick's aura and only golden flickering intertwining with Jaune's white glow was left.

Nick could see clearly now and on all sides there were battles. Oscar was fighting Hazel, who seemed to have gone completely crazy from the crystals in his arms and Qrow was going after Lionheart, who seemed to try and shoot Oscar from his weapon. The last thing he noticed was Yang blindly throwing punches and the gray haired guy just chuckling as he was beating her around. Emerald stood nearby and was still making Yang's life harder with her semblance.

'Nick!' Three more people ran up to where Nick's abdominal wound was slowly disappearing. It was Ruby, Nora and Weiss. The last girl was barely catching up to them, still slightly limping after the fight with Vernal. But when she finally managed to get close enough, she exchanged nods of respect with Van Thorne. Nick then heard Yang's painful whimper...and his heart skipped a beat. It somehow caused his wound to get mended even quicker, as if his aura was helping Jaune's.

'That's good enough. I'll take it from here...' Nick said as he was slowly getting up. There was a single hole in his red t-shirt and he looked at it with worry. The old Hexman was back up on his feet.

'But your aura, it's still not complete...' Ren said, trying to convince him to not push away Jaune's hands.

'My aura cover is not as big as yours. Hexman healing will do the rest. But...there are more important things right now than my wound...Who's that fuckstick putting his hands on Yang?' Nick said, cracked his knuckles and moved his head from side to side to make his neck less stiff.

'Mercury. He and that girl, Emerald, got Yang disqualified from last Vytal.' Ruby whispered into Nick's ear. That riled him up even more. In the meantime, Oscar got knocked out by one of Lionheart's projectiles and would have his spine shattered by Hazel if Qrow didn't intervene and took the hit.

'Oscar need help.' Ruby said from her observations.

Ren and Nora prepared themselves and dashed forwards, as if they didn't need to be told twice.

'Jaune, you and Pyrrha take care of that backstabbing cunt.' Nick said and pointed his finger at Lionheart, who seemed happily shocked that he managed to hit something with his impractical weapon. Pyrrha and Jaune nodded and ran off.

'And you?' Ruby asked.

'I was going to follow that ugly bird down the elevator...but right now, I'm too pissed off.' Nick said and his two swords appeared in his hands. That meant trouble for opponents.

'So am I.' Ruby said and readied her weapon with Weiss.

With a loud squeaky battle cry Ruby dashed forward and managed to land a hit on Emerald and knock her back from Yang.

'Ready for round 2?' Nick looked at Weiss and said with a dumb smile. Schnee rolled her eyes in response.

'Yeah yeah, just go get them already, Yang number 2.' She said with a slight smirk and dashed forth on her glyphs to help Ruby. She also left one for Nick so that he could land a very nasty hit on the guy named Mercury.

Nick's target hardly even noticed when a black and green shape flew right next to him, millimeters away from slashing one of his cheeks open. He got distracted from fighting Yang and was now staring directly at the Hexman, who tightened the grip on his swords as he went into a fighting stance.

'Well well well...a foul mouthed Hexman wants to play the hero, huh?' Mercury said with that punchable smirk.

'Mercury, is it? Listen, nobody puts their hands on my friend and gets away with it.' Nick responded and swung his swords.

'Hah, thing is...I technically never did use my hands.' Mercury was taunting Nick, but he knew just what to say in response.

'Well then you wouldn't mind if the first hand to touch Emerald was mine, would you?' Nick said as his fingers did a creepy thing while spinning the handle of his sword.

That pissed off Mercury to the point he charged at Nick with a loud battle cry. With ease he deflected the blow from one of the gray haired guy's legs. It felt as if they're made of steel and have some projectiles to them. "Just wonderful, another half ranged weapon. Have to ask Valery about that weapon breaking sword slash again..." The Hexman thought to himself, parrying Mercury's kicks almost as casually as Cinder was parrying Jaune. The guy wasn't nearly as good as Vernal.

When Mercury got close enough to the range of Nick's sword, their weapons clashed. Mercury was trying to kick him with his tibia and Nick's sword was emitting sparks. His legs must've been prosthetic.

'My goodness, now I know why you had to get Yang disqualified instead of defeating her. You kinda suck, dude.' Nick said, annoying Mercury even more. The guy in response was pressing further with his tibia. Nick in response just smirked, because he knew that Mercury already lost. In a split second one of Nick's swords hid back in his sleeve and a gun appeared in its place. He pointed it right in Mercury's face. The gray haired guy's expression changed from anger to pure shock and fear.

'Jackpot!' Nick just said with a smirk and squeezed the trigger. A bullet left his gun and seemed to strike Mercury right in the forehead. Unfortunately, the guy managed to cover himself with his aura and instead of a hole Nick just saw his opponent's white aura flickering.

'That was cool, not gonna lie.' Yang said, suddenly appearing next to Nick in a similar fighting stance to his.

'Thanks. Softened him up a little for you. Get him, dragon!' Nick said, feeling odd warmth in his heart after Yang's compliment.

'Seems like Ruby is softening up Emerald as well. Are you gonna be fine? My mother won't go down easily...' Yang said.

'Let's just say I've been taught to nail even fighters like her...' Nick said and made Yang chuckle. After that he just dashed forth, violently pushing Mercury away from his path and moving towards where the hole leading to the "vault" was, whatever it was. On his way he jumped over Hazel with grace and violently shoved away Lionheart as well. After a couple more steps Nick jumped down the hole that led to the mysterious hidden room, anxious what he'll see there.

In the meantime Nora and Oscar were trying to handle Hazel. He was incredibly resilient, even managing to pummel Nora onto the ground. But, as it turned out, it was short lived. With an ear shattering scream Nora used her semblance and turned Hazel's powered up by Dust body against him. As if just to make sure, she struck him with her hammer, which sent him flying with such force that he destroyed a good chunk of the Grand Hall's door along with surrounding wall. He landed on the ground just by the staircase. The soldiers in characteristic uniforms which Hazel referred to as The White Fang were already there, led by someone all too familiar to our heroes...

Hazel injected two more Dust crystals into his arms, this time they appeared to be fire Dust. After letting out an even more distorted scream the exhausted gang inside the Grand Hall only now noticed the scale of the assault. The school grounds were overflowing with the ones Nick called mentally challenged Faunus.

'Stay focused! Our friends are almost done here!' The man who seemed to be leading the White Fang goons said to his group as they were getting slightly intimidated by Hazel.

'Adam!' A female voice yelled from above. The White Fang goons looked up and so did the bearer of that name.

There was a girl standing on the roof of one of Haven's dorms. Her long white coat was slightly dangling in the wind. After looking closer, she could be recognized as the final teammate of Ruby, Weiss and Yang...it was Blake.

After an exchange between her and the man she called out even more Faunus poured into Haven. They were, however, different. Instead of the blood red logo of the White Fang, they carried white logo of that same group on their weapons. They were led by two men, one a tall, muscular man with black hair, a thick beard and yellow eyes wearing an open dark-violet coat with white fur trim and one a monkey Faunus boy with tanned skin, short spiky light-blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a loose-collared white jacket with no shirt underneath. As if that wasn't enough, the academy was being surrounded by Mistral Police's airships attracted by the fighting inside the Grand Hall.

From a farther rooftop, just outside of Haven's walls, Valery and Kyros were chilling out and watching the spectacle, attracted by the police shouting things through megaphones.

'Would you look at that, Kyros. It seems our little helper has uncovered a bigger gold mine of shady business than we thought. Malachite, White Fang, Lionheart, that secretary...speaking of which, you think she's picking sides?' She said as she was sitting with her feet dangling from the rooftop's edge. Kyros was sitting on the flatter part of the rooftop with his hands linked together and wasn't bothering with Valery's loud thoughts.

'So Adam Taurus is here as well...' Kyros eventually whispered upon hearing what the officer of Mistrali police said from her airship.

'Hey, look! Isn't that the guy you were in a photo with?' Valery said, suddenly noticing someone with her slightly enhanced Hexgirl vision. When Kyros looked where she pointed, he noticed the man in the dark-violet coat.

'Ghira?' Leijona seemed to be in shock. And when he raised his eyes at the police airship he noticed another familiar figure to him, a woman very similarly looking to Blake, but with much larger cat ears and shorter hair. "Kali?" He thought to himself, but didn't say it out loud.

'Ky, it's not our fight. We cannot risk exposure to a group of people this large...' Valery said, noticing her partner seems like he's getting ready to jump off the rooftop.

'Actually, this fight might just be important enough for you to intervene...' Suddenly a woman's voice said right behind Var Vigo and Leijona. The two Mistral vigilantes rapidly turned around but all they could see was a gentle wave of long, purple hair dangling in the wind as the moon's light was reflecting from it.

About a minute later it turned out that the man called Adam had explosives spread across the academy, but they were disarmed. Kyros could see that the one responsible for said disarming was a strange looking girl that could disguise her skin color into any surface, like a chameleon Faunus. The White Fangers were turning on Adam as he attempted one last time to detonate the explosives.

'What do we do?!' Adam said, turning into Hazel as if he was looking for support in him.

'This...is your business. Not mine. Fix it.' For a short time Hazel went back to his cool exterior as he was cracking his knuckles and stretching his neck from left to right.

'I told you Adam, it's over.' Blake said, giving the White Fang leader an intense stare.

'Now, now. Why do you have to be such a mood killer, sweetie? The fun has merely begun!' A voice from behind Blake said and its owner took a few steps forward to stand out from the crowd. It was Tromberg. She seemed to have two daggers strapped onto the back of her blouse. Accompanying her were Valery and Kyros with their weapons drawn to insure the impression they were giving.

'What is this supposed to be? An illegally organized masquerade in the middle of my academy in the middle of the night?' Helga was saying with visible irony as she was walking towards where Adam stood in a rather sexy way. Valery followed her, but Kyros stopped right behind Blake so that the man he called Ghira doesn't notice him.

'Oh no it's professor Tromberg!' The monkey Faunus standing next to Ghira groaned and covered his face in his hands.

'Sun Wukong...I heard that. I shall deal with your truancy later. Do not expect to be treated...gently.' The purple haired woman responded and smirked. It was in that moment that Adam screamed and tried to charge at the vice headmistress, readying his red blade. But Tromberg in response just nonchalantly moved to the right, turned around and in what seemed like a single second she managed to throw a kick right at Adam's face with both her hands behind her back without even looking in his direction. That hit knocked him back a little and made a crack in his Grimm resembling mask.

'Kill them!' The Faunus yelled and the White Fang goons opened fire and started charging with their weapons at the mob led by Ghira and the guy Tromberg referred to as Sun Wukong.

'Now remember, Hexie...no casualties.' Tromberg said in a serious tone to Valery and slowly walked away.

The battle outside of Grand Hall started. Meanwhile, Tromberg nonchalantly deflected the blows of anyone who tried to put their hand on her. She was extremely proficient with her fists and legs, it was clear they weren't just adding to her attractiveness. She was heading right towards Hazel and the Grand Hall, when she noticed a giant white shape going right through Hazel's chest and then pulling him back inside the Hall. She smirked upon seeing the familiar faces inside, all healthy...except for Van Thorne, whom she couldn't see anywhere. That made her worried, so she put two fingers on her ear.

'Vasilias, found your missing leader, get Ayana and David and head to the courtyard right by the Grand Hall. ABRN, is the headmaster's office secured?'

'Affirmative, professor. We were just about to leave.' A female voice responded from the communicator in Tromberg's ear.

'Good, send team RCSS here, Lionheart brought friends from the...other side. We'll kick their asses and arrest the traitor. Tromberg out.' The vice headmistress said and turned off her comm.

She stopped for a second right where Hazel stood not too long ago and looked at a watch she had on her left hand. After letting out a few sighs, finally a group of people managed to catch up to her through all that ruckus. They were two guys and two girls.

The first guy that reached the headmistress was a wolf Faunus with long blonde hair tied into a ponytail and brown eyes. He was wearing a rather casual looking white sleeveless shirt with a red vest over it, jeans with slightly loose legs and casual sneakers matching his vest. He was cracking his covered in light armor knuckles, seemingly being an unarmed fighter.

Next to the wolf Faunus stood a guy in an attire that completely covered him up. Besides a helmet that was covering his face almost entirely, letting only a pair of eager icy blue eyes look from behind them, he was wearing a beige trench coat, black pants, a grey shirt underneath the coat and dark grey unpolished armor (with some of it serving as his footwear) on top of his coat. It seemed like he was trying to match the wolf Faunus's pattern, must've been the leader. He swung what appeared to be a shovel in the air, presumably his weapon.

Right after the two guys, in a rather hyperactive way (by skating in on a pummeled to the ground White Fang goon), came a girl with tanned skin, blue eyes and very curly black hair. Her hair had white streaks here and there, but it wasn't dandruff. That girl was a hedgehog Faunus and the white streaks were needles. She was wearing khaki cargo pants, a black tank top and black and grey shoes completing her attire. She was holstering a boomerang as she was showing off next to Tromberg with a rather cheeky smirk.

The last girl that reached the vice headmistress came out of the Grand Hall's shadow. It was a more petite looking pale-skinned girl with green eyes, short black hair with purple highlights and very skinny legs. She was wearing a slightly oversized olive jacket with a grey jumper underneath, black skinny jeans, boots on a slightly high heel and had white earbuds hanging on her neck. She held a sword that seemed to have recently been a polearm slowly shortening in size.

'Rick Koera...check, Clancy Oscura...check, Selene Prasinos...check and...Skye Aguilar, as always up in my face.' Tromberg said as she was checking off the members of the freshman looking students by making eye contact with them. The one she mentioned as Skye was the hedgehog Faunus who stood right next to her, away from the rest of the team. Even the petite girl named Selene stood next to the completely covered man named Clancy.

'So...what do we need to do this evening, boss?' The hedgehog Faunus said with hands on her hips and with a huge grin threatening to tear her face apart.

'The usual. I'll assign targets to each of you, but this time we're kicking human and Faunus ass, not Grimm.' Tromberg said and took out her scroll.

'I wanna take the big guy!' The wolf Faunus, Rick, said as he was pointing in Hazel's direction. The vice headmistress just smirked in response.

'Very well, Koera...but watch yourself. THAT beefcake seems to have slammed Dust crystals into his hands, try not to get punched. Well, in that case, Oscura will go after the kicker and Prasinos, you'll cover him and deal with the mocha skin...'

'And me? What about me?' The very eager girl next to Tromberg was getting too close for comfort again.

'You, Aguilar, will go with me. Tonight, our headmaster gets the rough treatment.' Tromberg said and took out her two daggers. Skye responded by nodding and grabbing a hold of her two boomerangs.

'Oh, right...but who's gonna deal with the bitchy kid over there? He's a little tougher than the rest of these White Fang dicks.' Selene said, her voice not fitting the words she used, and pointed her finger at Adam, who was cutting through the Faunus mob. He seemed to have set his sights on Kyros.

'The Hexie and the big boy can handle them. Besides, they have Wukong and the rest of his team to cover them.' Tromberg said, seemingly proud at the monkey Faunus she caught with her eyes whacking someone in the head with a big staff made up of two gunchuks.

'Yang?' Team RCSS and Tromberg suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice, as if it was trying to sneak past them into the room they wanted to make into their battlefield. All of them turned to see the cat Faunus that approached Adam first, Blake Belladonna.

'Oy oy oy oy oy, where do YOU think you're going?' Skye made a long jump and landed right in front of Blake's eyes, covering the blonde she put her eyes on immediately.

'Skye, let the girl have her reunion, it's clear she's not here by accident.' Said the one named Rick and everyone on the team at least chuckled.

'Yang! Go!' Inside the Grand Hall Ruby's voice could be heard and after that Tromberg rolled her eyes and dashed forth, ready to kick her boss's ass.

Nick eventually noticed something he could grab onto as he was falling down the elevator shaft to the vault. He grabbed onto the tip of the gate, pulled himself up on it, put his legs on the other side and nonchalantly jumped off, landing on his two legs with his knees slightly bent (and internally hurting like hell because he still felt the stab from earlier not healing entirely).

Before him stood only Raven and Cinder, but he could see Vernal a little further away walking up to what appeared to be a huge golden door. It was placed on a rock and above it Van Thorne could see a giant tree with glowing orange petals falling from it. The sight amazed him, especially since that was supposed to be a completely secret room.

'You again?!' Cinder seemed pissed off to see the Hexman when she turned back and saw him. Raven didn't say anything, instead she put her hand on her weapon. She was wearing the Grimm mask, making Nick think she's just a little more intimidating.

'What, you don't like it when someone interrupts family reunions? Me neither. But it's you I was trying to catch. We seem to have unfinished business...Raven.' Nick said pointing one of his swords at the long-haired woman, this time rather calmly, although still with a slight hint of his usual combat attitude.

'I don't have a quarrel with you, Hexman. Back off.' Raven said coldly, without taking off her mask.

'Quarrel?! YOU are the reason I lost my one and only chance to live a normal life! I think that's more than a fuckin quarrel!' Nick for a second got pissed off.

'You accuse me of such deeds, yet it was my effort that made you stronger. You've felt what it's like when you can no longer rely on hope. You've felt what it's like when you're betrayed. And finally...you've felt what it's like to endure it all. If you haven't, you wouldn't be standing here right now.' Raven said and took her mask off, looking at Nick directly with her cold, red eyes.

Nick tried to talk back, but then he heard Cinder's menacing cackle somewhere in between him and Raven.

'You two are just adorable. If I didn't know the truth, Raven, I'd genuinely mistake him for your son.' She said.

'What is HE doing here?' Vernal whispered to Raven as she finally caught up with what was happening and walked up to her.

'No idea. But keep your guard up. In case she goes after him instead, I open up a portal for you and you RUN. Understand?' Raven whispered back as she was putting her mask back on. Vernal only nodded in response.

'Up close, you really do seem like a Hexman. I heard stories of your kind before, but never really believed you existed...' Cinder said as she was walking up closer to Nick, her one eye lighting up in a flame.

'Lady, I believe there's something in your eye.' Nick said, trying to taunt Cinder's look. That really angered the Fall Maiden, but instead of showing that...she decided to turn the tables against Van Thorne.

'Gee, well I guess I'll have to check it...' Cinder responded, grabbed onto her oversized sleeve and started tearing it off. What Nick saw when she was finished was unbelievable...

Cinder didn't exactly have a left arm. It ended around the elbow area and from there to the end she had a dark, skinny Grimm arm with long, sharp claws giving away a sinister silver glow. Nick's eyes went completely wide and, not controlling his shock, he started taking steps back.

'I believe that qualifies me as a Hexgirl...don't you think?' Cinder said and tilted her head to the right, as if she was preparing to completely obliterate Nick on the spot.

'You...you...that arm...you're...Laura?' Nick wasn't in control of what he was saying, only pointing his sword forward with a very shaky hand and still taking steps back. Cinder looked at him now with visible confusion.

'There is no "Laura" here, jokester...' She said as her Grimm arm was slowly straightening itself.

'Now, run!' Raven hissed at Vernal and opened a portal. The short-haired girl jumped in without hesitation and it immediately vanished after that. Cinder immediately turned around.

'NO! What did you do?! We were so close!' She yelled.

'And we still are. This situation couldn't be more perfect.' Raven responded with a strange smirk...and then Nick noticed with the corner of his eye that Branwen has the exact same flames coming out of her eyes, only red.

With a loud screech Cinder dashed forward at Raven, leaving Nick completely broken as he was leaning against the elevator gate, blankly staring at the vault in front of him. The fight between the two started, both women were dealing hits Nick couldn't even comprehend. But worse than that, he couldn't get a particularly painful memory out of his head when he saw what Cinder had underneath that oversized sleeve...

" _Nicholas, I understand you do not wish to be here...but as a Hexman, you'll have to be present at such ceremonies. Just stay close to me..."_

" _Dad, why doesn't mommy want to come?"_

" _You see, sometimes disagreements can be taken far...ah, Schwartz. I see you've made it. It's a big day for you after all!"_

" _I just want this to be over already. Laura's really stressed out and so am I..."_

At that moment Nick felt a strange surge in his aura as well as a menacing gust of wind blowing even harder through the vault. When he looked clearer he could see that around Raven and Cinder there's giant orbs of energy. Raven's was blue and had what looked like ice crystals circling around her, Cinder's was orange and had fiery embers circling around her. "Who the fuck are you women?" Nick thought to himself...and then he noticed Cinder's erratic movement as she seemed to call the orb to herself and as the embers are forming a giant sword in her hands. That same painful memory was triggered again...

" _It's taking over! Torches, quickly! We have to kill this thing!"_

" _Sihill, wait! She could be just having a seizure!"_

" _She's already speaking their language! If we don't do something now, she'll...Oh Gods, Nicholas!"_

" _Sihill, please!"_

" _Give me the fuckin' torch! My son is in there, can't you see?!"_

" _No!"_

Finally the painful memory left Nick's head and when he looked forward after that Cinder's huge fiery sword was clashing with Raven's giant katana, which seemed to be made up entirely of the ice crystals he saw earlier. The surge that came after these two weapons clashed blew wind really hard in Nick's face and shook the very ceiling of the vault. The stalactites above them all were threatening to fall of any moment now...

And so they did. Thankfully, not where Nick, Raven and Cinder were. Except for one that wasn't as big as the others and caused a huge cloud of smoke after hitting the floor. Raven suddenly landed on her feet right next to where Nick was.

'What is...' He tried to ask.

'Stay out of this, do you hear me? Find a place to hide!' She responded...and all of a sudden Cinder's Grimm arm lunged out of the smoke and hit Raven, smashing her against the elevator gate as it was holding onto her neck.

As if out of instinct, Nick switched his sword into his pistol and started firing right where the one-armed woman was standing. His bullets weren't hitting her of course as she was deflecting them but then they both noticed that another stalactite is about to drop on their heads. Nick managed to instinctively jump back, but the solid rock crashed right into Cinder, releasing her Grimm arm from holding Raven's neck. She looked at him, frowned...and gave a respectful looking nod. Confused as to why Branwen showed any sign of respect, Nick could only stare as the woman was making a very high jump towards one of the stalactites falling down next to the vault's walking platform and Cinder soon follows her, seemingly unharmed by the rock that just fell on her.

The rest of the fight Nick didn't manage to follow as the two women were jumping from rock to rock at incredible speed and clashing their weapons so much that he couldn't keep track of it. But eventually he noticed that Cinder has an orange glow flickering on her body and when a stalactite they both jumped off from shattered on the ground, Nick could see as Raven stands perfectly fine despite her aura slightly flickering as well, while Cinder breathes heavily on the ground, her aura now completely visible.

'Had enough yet?' Raven asked.

'Shut up!' Cinder yelled back in response. That was when she saw Nick curiously looking from behind Raven's shoulder. She got very angry for some reason and had her Grimm arm grab him by the t-shirt. When she pulled him closer Nick managed to free himself by leaving a piece of fabric from his clothing piece with Cinder. After that he fell on the ground a little behind her. The Fall Maiden looked at her hand and upon seeing a piece of red fabric stuck in the claws of her Grimm arm instead of Nick she got even angrier.

'If you were stronger or more clever, then maybe you'd remember to watch your back!' Raven said upon seeing Cinder's desperation. The Maiden turned back, but Nick didn't do anything except flipping her off with his middle finger for tearing his shirt and making his abdomen completely visible. Raven put him in the spot, so he was angry now as well.

Branwen didn't waste that small window of opportunity. She dashed forward at great speed and with what appeared to be a charged up punch she socked Cinder straight in the forehead with an open palm, sending her flying off the edge of the vault's platform. The Fall Maiden was now falling down, her black glass mask shattering, revealing the rest of the X shape to be a horrifying burn scar covering half of her face and an empty eye socket.

As Nick was trying to get himself up from the ground, he couldn't stop feeling oddly sorry for the ashen-haired woman as Raven seemed to be freezing her with the last gesture of her hand. The memory of when he was 6 years old and assisted during a failed Hexman initiation wasn't painful anymore...it felt like an impulse...to do something. Something was making him think, that Cinder's fate and his would soon collide again...

'It appears I owe you an apology...' Raven said in a slightly softer tone and sighed as she was turning around to face the Hexman. When she looked to her left, the giant golden door was about to start opening. Nick was too busy trying to cover his abdomen from the red-eyed woman...until both him and Raven heard a loud thwack on the vault's platform. They looked in the elevator's direction...and saw Yang standing up from the ground right there. She stared blankly at Raven, the kind Nick would never want Yang to look at him with...

'Come on! You seemed the toughest out of them all, but you're barely trying now!' Rick yelled as he was dodging with ease the fire projectiles Hazel was shooting in his direction. He teamed up partially with Weiss, who summoned a big white Lancer with her ability, but eventually Hazel let out a loud distorted yell and managed to hit the Lancer with lightning projectiles and obliterate it.

Not focusing on Rick, Hazel didn't notice when someone kicked him in the chin and jumped off his face right towards where Ruby and Weiss stood.

'Thanks, kitty!' Rick said and dashed forth right at Hazel, intending to deal some nasty punches onto his exposed back...

But then he almost crashed into one of his teammates and barely managed to catch her and jump away from a ground slam Hazel prepared.

'Selene, you okay?' He asked the teammate he caught.

'That girl...she's somehow creating more enemies and whenever I think I'm about to hit her, she disappears!' Prasinos responded, barely holding onto Rick's back. Eventually they were joined by Clancy, who was keeping Mercury at a distance. The three slowly backed away towards Ruby, Weiss and Blake while Hazel, Emerald and Mercury were advancing forth.

'That's Emerald's semblance! She messes with your vision so much that you think you see things that aren't really there!' Ruby loudly said to Selene after overhearing her.

'Thanks, ladies. But we can take it from here. That guy in grey is barely putting up a fight, I'll have him pummeled shortly.' Clancy said and swung his shovel around. After that he dashed forth at his opponent and Selene did the same after nodding to Ruby. Only Rick was left, waiting for Hazel to come closer as the muscular man was letting out more screams distorted by the Dust in his arms. Thankfully, Ren and Nora showed up seemingly automatically, willing to assist Koera. After telling Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Jaune to guard the vault elevator, Rick dashed forth to face his opponent.

Meanwhile, on the staircase, Tromberg seemed to be toying with Lionheart. The cowardly headmaster was barely landing any shots on her but he seemed more eager to fight than earlier.

'I wasn't expecting that you would be pursuing the foolish plan of Ozpin as well, Helga. I've genuinely trusted you!' Lionheart yelled in anguish and fired another fire Dust sphere at Tromberg. What was strange, she caught it with her hands and threw it to the ceiling.

'Whatever Ozpin's up to doesn't turn me on as much as the thought of finally showing the world that your leadership of this school SUCKS!' Tromberg responded with genuine anger. It was at that moment that Skye attacked the headmaster from behind. The fight continued, with Tromberg trying to get a stab at Leo while Skye was distracting him from her. Eventually the purple-haired woman crossed her two daggers with Lionheart's shield.

'You think you can do better? You, who cannot even professionally interact with students!' Lionheart seems like he's taunting someone for the first time. It annoyed Tromberg greatly and seeing how Skye is about to throw her boomerang, she prepared a trap in her head.

'Hey Leo, do you remember what you said during my job interview?' She said with a mischievous smirk.

At that moment Skye threw her weapon and hit Lionheart right at the back of the head. His fear suddenly grew.

'Respect the private parts!' Tromberg mockingly imitated Lionheart's voice and threw a kick as powerful as she could think of. Leo screamed from pain and let go of the vice headmistress's daggers as an overwhelming pain went through him starting in between his legs.

'Skye, get over here!' The vice headmistress said, but seeing the hand gesture she was doing Aguilar just lunged forth and stood behind Tromberg now.

'Ugh...I need to go...' Lionheart was trying to say through all the pain as he was walking with a limp towards the door near the staircase. It was in that moment that Tromberg activated her semblance. She took two Dust crystals out of the holsters under her skirt, one seemed to be Ice, the other seemed to be Incendiary. Right after that she smashed them together and when she opened the palm of her hands, she held an intimidating sparking orb of combined Dust energy. That was her semblance, the ability to manually combine the power of Dust and utilize it with her bare hands.

With a loud scream Tromberg threw the ball of incendiary ice right in the direction of fleeing Lionheart. And when the headmaster looked back in shock, it was already too late for him.

A big white and blue explosion echoed throughout the entire Grand Hall of Haven. The rest of team RCSS looked up and smirked, while Qrow and Oscar seemed worried. Lionheart gave Tromberg one last look before his yellow aura flickered and he passed out on the ground. Helga's purple aura also flickered, but she could still stand up.

'Skye...cuff him. The police will take care of the rest. These huntsmen deserve justice.' She said as she was handing her assistant a pair of handcuffs.

Meanwhile, in the vault, a really intense argument broke between Yang and her biological mother. Nick was trying his best to get away from the sights of both of them, not wanting to make eye contact neither with Raven nor his friend. The two were arguing about someone they referred to as "The Spring Maiden" and how Branwen was responsible for her death. Nick did hear the legend of the four Maidens in the past, his dad mentioned it. But...was it really all true as well? Was the woman that stood in front of him and caused him all that suffering a Maiden? And Cinder? Was she a Maiden as well? Nick didn't know and was utterly confused, but instead of focusing on it he was more afraid of making eye contact with Yang, who seemed to be even more pissed off than before the gate to Kuroyuri.

'Which is it mom, are you merciful, or are you a survivor? Did you let me walk into that trap because you knew I could handle it, or because it meant you could get what you wanted?' Yang at some point said.

'It's not that simple. You don't know me, you don't know what I've been through, the choices I've had to make!' Raven talked back, seemingly unable to hold back her own emotions.

'You're right...I don't know you. I only know the Raven dad told me about. She was troubled, and complicated, but she fought for what she believed in, whether it was her team or her tribe!' Yang said...and for some reason Nick felt like he should leave.

'Maybe...I should just go...' He quietly said, trying to only have Yang hear him.

'And what about Nick? I remember what dad told him about you, I was there. You abandoned him when he was nearly dead, when he needed rescue!' The blondie was now pointing at the Hexman. He stiffened in place, unable to move towards the exit now.

'I've merely given the Hexman an opportunity to see what he needed! I've stared death in the face over and over again! And every time I've spat in that face and survived, because I'm strong enough to do what others won't! And now thanks to me he's standing next to you!' Raven snapped, her eyes yet again lighting up in the red flames from before.

'Shut up!' Both Yang and Nick said at the same time. Raven shuddered a little upon seeing how synchronized their reactions were.

'You're forgetting that it was Summer Rose who truly saved me back then, not you! She was the strong one, because she had the courage to go against what you said!' Nick also snapped at Raven. Yang for a second was startled by what he said, but soon her expression returned to that blank stare.

'You turn your back on people, you run away when things get too hard, you put others in harm's way instead of yourself!' Yang yelled after quickly getting over what Nick mentioned.

'And who are YOU two to lecture me?! A pathetic Hexman, who gets scared at the sight of a Grimm smaller than a Ravager and you, standing there and shaking like a scared little girl!' Raven wasn't controlling her own anger. She resembled Yang a lot at that time.

'Yeah, I am scared. But I'm still standing here!' Yang talked back.

After that Nick stopped paying attention to what the two were saying to each other. He started overthinking if he really is particularly pathetic for Hexman standards.

And as Yang's and Raven's argument was slowly dying down, he couldn't help but fall down on his knees. He just now realized how much all of this is weighing on him. How the memories of Raven and Laura were keeping him from truly living a normal life. He wanted to cry...but he couldn't utter a tear. Instead, he slowly stood up and started walking towards Yang, who was heading towards the open golden door. When he passed Raven, he couldn't help but give her one last look before completely severing off his memory with her. And this time, Raven didn't have the look of a survivor. She seemed...defeated. And for a second Nick thought he could see a couple of tears leaving her eyes.

'I...I'm sorry...' She said with a shaky voice, hardly able to even look at Nick. The Hexman didn't know why, but he couldn't bring himself to use more words on her. For a second, he even thought about comforting his former enemy, but stopped himself before he touched Raven's shoulder and just walked past her without uttering a word. Deep in his heart, he forgave her. But he was unable to show it.

'Yeah...me too.' Yang said with just as shaky of a voice when Nick stood next to her.

After that they both heard a characteristic sound and when they turned around, Raven was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a single quill of a corvid bird was lying on the vault's ground.

'So...are you comfortable with getting whatever that is?' Nick asked upon seeing in the distance behind the gate a strange object glowing teal that resembled a lamp. It was the only thing that could interest Yang as everything around it was just endless desert.

'Nope...' She responded with a sigh.

'Do you...need me to come with you?' Van Thorne asked, feeling worried about Yang as she seemed like she's about to cry as well.

Xiao Long shook her head and walked forth to the strangely moving sands. Nick was anxious, but he was constantly watching if she's alright. Now, more than ever, he felt like Yang is his friend.

But once she grabbed the strange object resembling a lamp, Nick saw as the blondie falls on her knees and starts sobbing. Without hesitation he ran inside the strange desert to comfort his friend. He wasn't sure yet what was causing that but...he felt a strong connection with her.

But when Van Thorne and Xiao Long were going up on the elevator and it reached where the staircase was to where Tromberg fought Lionheart, Nick quickly turned around and walked away, not willing to be in the same spotlight as Yang, who held the strange object in her hand and deserved to be praised for it. Instead of going down the stairs, Nick hid in the corner and felt as his eyes start to slowly close from the exhaustion that evening laid upon him.

He quickly woke up, however, due to an ear-shattering shriek that went through the entire Grand Hall. For a second he thought the room was filled with black and red lights everywhere, but that quickly went away. His first thought was to get down the stairs. When he did, everyone was there. Further in the distance, around where Hazel previously flew, Tromberg and team RCSS were kicking Lionheart in the back, urging him to move. Hazel, Emerald or Mercury were nowhere to be seen. But instead, Nick noticed a face unfamiliar to him. It was the last member of team RWBY that he never met personally, Blake Belladonna. She was approached by two people, a Faunus man and a woman, that by appearance could've been her parents. All three of them shared a hug.

'The police rounded up the remaining White Fang members. Haven is safe.' Nick caught what the woman was saying to Blake and yet again just stared blankly into everyone his eyes could catch. Team JNPR was reunited as Nick could see them share a hug. Pyrrha seemed to have been in an euphoric state. And shortly after noticing that hug, after hearing a gasp, Nick noticed that Blake is also looking directly at the rest of the team, urged by an unknown to him monkey Faunus. She walked slowly towards Yang, Ruby and Weiss who were kneeling in a group hug right in front of the elevator statue. They started talking...and then Nick heard another voice, closer to where he was resting.

'Ghira? Kali?' A male voice could be heard as its owner entered Haven's Grand Hall. It was Kyros. Right behind him, almost a quarter of his height, Valery was following him.

'Kyros Leijona? Haha, I thought these poleaxe slams sounded familiar! Come here, you!' The man that was referred to as Ghira couldn't hide his enthusiasm and squeezed Kyros in a bear hug. From Leijona's face you could tell that the guy in the purple coat was strong enough to probably crush his bones.

Nick chuckled upon seeing as Kyros starts talking with Blake's parents. He didn't even notice when his homeroom teacher snuck up behind him and took a seat next to him with her legs crossed as always.

'Quite a night, isn't it?' She asked

'It was a lot to take in at once. I...uhhh...I have to ask you something.' Nick said and looked at Valery. She just prompted him to ask away.

'Would you mind...taking a look at someone for me?' Nick asked, a plan shaping up in his head to go down the hole where Cinder fell. He needed to know more about why she had a Grimm arm and functioned normally.

'As in...alchemically?' Valery seemed to be slightly nervous. Nick nodded in response.

'I uhhhh...I could try, but I really went out of shape with that stuff. There could be...unforeseen complications...' She added as she was getting up from the ground.

'Good, I'll see you tomorrow then.' Nick said and also got up from the ground. He turned on his heel and started walking towards the exit from the Grand Hall. He looked back one last time to see all 4 members of team RWBY in a hug, Blake included. He shed a single tear. "They're all with who they should be. I'm no longer needed." He thought to himself and was about to exit the Grand Hall...

When somebody suddenly stopped him.

'Where do YOU think you're going?!'

It was Nora and Pyrrha. Jaune and Ren stood nearby with their arms crossed.

'I was just...about to leave...' Nick said and awkwardly put his hand on the back of his head.

'Are you KIDDING ME?! HOW ARE YOU EVEN DENSER THAN JAUNE AND REN COMBINED?!' Nora yelled, grabbing onto her hair with the angriest looking eyes of all time.

'Excuse me?!' Jaune yelled from the distance.

'What Nora meant to say...' Pyrrha butted into the conversation and pushed away the fuming ginger. After that, with her usual awkward grin, she grabbed Nick by the shoulders and forcibly turned him around towards the inside of the Grand Hall.

'Hey!' Nick didn't appreciate what the girl was doing.

'Is that you should go there, right up to where Yang is, and be honest with her...' Pyrrha added, whispering for the most part.

'Honest? About what?' Nick asked with the most nervous grin.

'About how you feel towards her, of course!' Nora said, moving Nick's head away from Pyrrha's eyes towards the direction where team RWBY was.

'How I feel? What are you...'

'Shush. You're a worse liar than Pyrrha. Now go!' Nora said and pushed Van Thorne.

Nick was incredibly nervous. He could hardly walk forward to where team RWBY was still sharing a hug. Eventually, however, he did reach them, but was unable to utter many words from his mouth.

'Y-Yang?' He said, nervously scratching his wrist.

The blondie looked up from where she, Ruby, Weiss and Blake shared a hug. Her lilac eyes looked at him now in their full beautiful glory. But they were assisted by Weiss's icy blue stare, Ruby's silver eyed gaze and Blake's confused amber glare.

'Who's that?' Blake asked after long, awkward silence.

'Weiss, Blake...this is Nick. He's our newest friend!' Ruby said, now with her cheerful tone back in her voice.

'Our? You mean...' Blake said but didn't finish because then she noticed how quickly Yang rose up from her knees and hugged Nick very tightly. She didn't utter a single word, nor did Nick. He just returned the hug and cherished the moment he had. In the vault, when Yang was in tears, Nick only managed to pat her shoulder a bit until she told him to go away. Now...it seemed like Yang was really back. And when the rest of team RWBY joined in on his and Yang's hug (Weiss and Blake still a little confused) Nick finally could say, after a very long time, that he felt...warmth.

'This won't happen when the rest of the team is around...' Pyrrha whispered to Nora in the distance, who seemed to be holding her breath in anger at how, in their opinion, Nick isn't true to his feelings and is acting dense.


End file.
